Meta is pushing back against calls to ban children from social media, warning that restrictions alone won’t stop young people going online as New Zealand considers whether to follow Australia’s lead.
The tech giant’s vice president and global head of safety, Antigone Davis, is in Auckland for an Instagram safety camp, promoting what the company called stronger protections for teenagers and more control for parents.
Davis described an outright social media ban as a “fool’s errand”, arguing it creates a false sense of security while driving young people towards less regulated parts of the internet.
“The challenge with a ban is that you can’t ban the entire internet,” she told 1News. “So you’re going to try to home in on a subset of apps that kids use.”
Meta pointed to Australia’s under-16 social media ban, which came into effect this year, saying early signs show teenagers are simply finding alternatives.
“Teens did what you would have expected, which is they started downloading a whole slew of apps that people didn’t know about,” Davis said. “You kind of drive teens, unfortunately, to less safe experiences.”
Instead, Meta was promoting its "Teen Accounts", which it said were designed around parents’ biggest concerns.
“We’ve built teen accounts around parents’ top concerns: Who their teens are connecting with, what content they’re seeing, and how much time they’re spending,” Davis said. “You can’t access these apps without permission from your parents first. That sets up the right initial barrier, and then we put safeguards in place.”
But Davis acknowledged the technology was not foolproof.
“No technology is perfect,” she said. “That’s why we think it’s important to have multiple layers of protection, not just one single solution.”
When asked where responsibility should sit, Davis said platforms could not step back from their role.
“It has to be shared,” she said. “Parents play a critical role, but platforms have to design safety in from the start. Platforms absolutely have a responsibility, and that’s why we’ve focused on building protections directly into our products.”
Online safety advocates also said the debate should move beyond simple bans versus access.
NetSafe chief executive Brent Carey said there was no single fix.
“We love the idea of a silver bullet, but silver bullets don’t work,” Carey said. “We need more than just banning and restricting access.”
From a youth perspective, Gen-Z Aotearoa co-director Lola Fisher said bans risked ignoring how deeply social media was already embedded in young people’s lives.
“Young people are still accessing social media, they’re finding ways around the ban,” Fisher said. “What we need is regulation and safe, supportive environments.”
Teens tell 1news they can get around the restriction, and the government says the measure was never going to be perfect. (Source: 1News)
However, one online safety advocacy group that attended the event said it was not convinced Meta’s approach went far enough.
In a statement, Makes Sense said it understood Meta’s desire to respond to growing demand for safer products, but said any trust it once had in major platforms had been “fundamentally eroded”, with action only coming after years of harm and exposure.
Asked what assurances she could give Kiwi parents, Davis said Meta was listening.
“What I would say to parents is that we’re listening, and we’re building these protections with them in mind.”
Meta’s visit came amid growing calls for greater oversight of social media platforms, with the Government considering whether to introduce stricter rules for children online.
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