Under the Influence: New Zealand’s Teen Social Media Reckoning

The NZ Herald’s six-part video series Under the Influence opened this week as Australia’s teen social media ban enters its first six months on the books. Director-producer Nadia Maxwell’s first episode lands the same week New Zealand’s under-16 social media bill sits on hold at Parliament. For parents in New Zealand, the timing is the question.

The series, made with NZ On Air support, runs six episodes with Maxwell talking to mums and daughters about what shows up on a teen’s feed when no one is watching. It pitches itself as a wake-up call for parents, and the Australasian debate around age restrictions is already running ahead of the cameras. Maxwell’s preview essay in the Herald flags the next threat: “AI will make it worse.”

A Six-Part Series Lands Inside a Live Global Debate

The series runs six episodes, with the first published on 21 June. The trailer image sets the visual hook: as a young girl scrolls through her phone in the park, her social media feed comes to life with horrifying results, per the Under the Influence series trailer. Made with support from NZ On Air, the launch note says the series carries “the voices of young Kiwis front and centre.”

Maxwell is the founder of Overactive Imagination, a production house working out of the Arts Centre in Ōtautahi Christchurch. She frames the series around a generation in a mental-health crisis, and her preview essay for the Herald leans on a phrase the marketing has carried since the trailer dropped: “the loneliest generation.” That framing lands in a country where the under-16 social media bill is parked on the order paper, six months after Canberra became the first regulator to switch its own law on. Australia is now one of three countries with a social media age-restriction law in force.

What Australia Actually Did on 10 December 2025

Australia passed its law on 10 December 2025, the first such enforcement under this model. The rules bar anyone under 16 from holding an account on ten named services, and age-restricted platforms now have to take reasonable steps to keep under-16s out. Platforms can use age-verification methods including inference from online activity, facial estimation via selfies, uploaded IDs, or linked bank details, per the first teen social media ban enforcement report on the rollout. X was the last holdout among the named services, signalling on the day it would comply.

The platforms on the restricted list read like a tech-industry roll call:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Kick
• Reddit
• Snapchat
• Threads
• TikTok
• Twitch
• X
• YouTube

Penalties for under-16s accessing an age-restricted platform fall on the platform itself, not on young people or their parents or carers, per Beyond Blue’s explainer on Australia’s age-restriction laws. The ceiling for serious or repeated breaches sits at $AU49.5 million.

The law also carried a public-mandate figure behind it: a YouGov survey found 77% of Australians backed the under-16 social media ban. Critics including Amnesty Tech called the ban an “ineffective fix” that ignored the rights of younger users, and Google warned that age-verification at this scale is hard to enforce. Implementation has rolled out in stages under the eSafety Commissioner. Age-restricted material codes were registered on 27 June 2025 and came into effect on 27 December 2025; the social-media-services codes were registered on 9 September 2025 and in force from 9 March 2026. Beyond Blue notes the list of restricted platforms may change over time, with the eSafety Commissioner publishing updates.

Six Months In, the Rollout Is Already Fraying

First six months in, the rollout is already fraying. Local reports in Australia indicated that many children had already bypassed the ban, with age-assurance tools misclassifying users, and workarounds such as VPNs proving effective, per CNBC’s reporting on day-one circumvention. Terry Flew, a professor of digital communication and culture at the University of Sydney, told CNBC there were “a fair amount of teething problems.”

The fact that teenagers occasionally find a way to have a drink doesn’t diminish the value of having a clear national standard.

Anthony Albanese, Australian Prime Minister, in a Sunday opinion piece, per CNBC, 10 December 2025.

Critics including the Cato Institute’s David Inserra warned that the policy would push children toward private apps and VPNs where monitoring is harder. Jonathan Haidt, the social psychologist and author of The Anxious Generation, posted on X commending policymakers for “freeing kids under 16 from the social media trap.” Haidt said other nations would follow. Google warned that age-verification at this scale is hard to enforce, and Amnesty Tech called the ban an “ineffective fix” that ignored the rights of younger users.

The Australian rollout also produced an early reality check on age-assurance tech. Government-commissioned reports cited by CNBC pointed to inaccuracies in selfie-based age-guessing software. The OECD’s tracker counts this as one of three countries with a law in force, the others being Brazil and Indonesia.

New Zealand’s Ban Is on Hold. Parents Are Filling the Gap

New Zealand’s version of the law is not live, and may not be soon. National MP Catherine Wedd’s bill would mirror Canberra’s threshold of 16, but Education Minister Erica Stanford told RNZ why Wedd’s bill is on hold. The bill sat at third on the order paper for member’s bills at the time of reporting.

Wedd’s bill is on hold for the moment. We are continuing to work through the process and will have more to say soon.

Erica Stanford, New Zealand Education Minister, via RNZ.

Stanford’s office also said papers were still working their way through Cabinet and the government was “aiming to introduce legislation this year.” Labour said it would support a ban, while the Greens and ACT opposed it, saying restrictions would be too easy to bypass and that social media harms more than just young people.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in November had said the government would have its “first go” at a ban “before the term.” That commitment now sits behind Stanford’s “more to say soon” line. National pushed the bill as a member’s bill rather than a government bill because ACT refused to back a government-led version. The series Under the Influence is screening into that gap.

The data shaping the case at home is already sobering. 22.9% of young adults aged 15 to 24 in New Zealand reported high or very high levels of psychological distress in the four weeks before the 2024/2025 New Zealand Health Survey.

Inside Episode 1: A Tauranga Mum Who Turned Off the Wi-Fi

Episode 1 of Under the Influence centres on Sophia, a Tauranga mum who turned off her daughter’s Wi-Fi and got a furious reaction. Maxwell wrote episode 1 with the Tauranga mum under the headline “I was furious: What happened when mum turned off teen daughter’s Wi-Fi.” The series’ framing on the page sets the tone: “A generation of young people are facing a mental health crisis linked to social media addiction, but for worried teens and their parents, there is hope.” The piece was published on 21 June.

The Australian data Maxwell is referencing makes the scale clear. A 2025 government-commissioned Australian study found 96% of children aged 10 to 15 used social media, and seven out of 10 had been exposed to harmful content. The study was commissioned by Australia’s government as part of its age-restriction evidence base. The categories children reported:

1. Misogynistic and violent material
2. Content promoting eating disorders
3. Content promoting suicide
4. Grooming-type contact from adults or older children (one in seven reported this)
5. Cyberbullying (more than half said they had been a victim)

More than half said they had been the victim of cyberbullying, and one in seven reported grooming-type behaviour from adults or older children, per BBC reporting on the Australian study, summarised by Stuff.

AI Companions: What Maxwell Found Posing as a Teen

The twist sits in the second half of the series. Maxwell’s preview essay in the Herald announces the throughline: “Under the Influence: How social media preys on young NZers and AI will make it worse.” When Nadia Maxwell began experimenting with AI companions, posing as a teenager, she traced how AI companions prey on young users. The age-gating logic that underpins Canberra’s law has nothing to say about a chatbot.

Jonathan Haidt’s four norms for childhood and phones, circulated through his book The Anxious Generation and his public work, have not changed: no smartphones before 14, no social media before 16, phone-free schools, and more independence and free play. Those norms were built for the feed era. They do not yet cover a teen messaging a chatbot at 1 a.m. Character.AI and Google agreed in January 2026 to settle lawsuits alleging the chatbot maker contributed to mental health crises among teenagers, per JURIST. The original case was brought in October 2024 by Megan Garcia, mother of suicide victim Sewell Setzer, 14, in the Florida district court.

Minnesota lawmakers are now considering banning AI companion chatbots for minors, citing the same safety concerns that landed Character.AI in court. The NZ series sits in the middle of this regulatory churn. Maxwell’s preview essay frames AI companions as the next wave of harm, not the current one. Episode 1 stays on the home front, where Sophia and her daughter live.

From 12 to 25 Countries in 16 Months

From 12 to 25 countries in 16 months is the OECD’s reading of the global pace. At the end of 2023, only one OECD member was considering social media age restrictions. Two years later the total had risen to 12, with one law already in force. Within another four months the count had reached 25.

• 1 OECD member considering age restrictions at end of 2023
• 12 considering by end of 2025
• 25 countries with activity recorded as of April 2026
• 3 countries with laws in force: Australia, Brazil, Indonesia
• Every enacted law to date sets the minimum age at 16

The OECD notes that almost every proposal and law clusters around a minimum age of 15 or 16, with Australia anchoring the debate and every enacted law using 16 as the floor. Of the 25 countries with activity recorded as of April 2026, the overwhelming majority are still in the proposal or consultation stage. The OECD’s own framing: “social media has been part of children’s lives for nearly two decades; the policy response may be, in many ways, just beginning.” For NZ’s under-16 bill on hold at Parliament, the OECD’s snapshot says the global race is moving faster than Wellington’s calendar. The Under the Influence series opens the same week the OECD released its April 2026 reading of the picture.

Disclaimer: This article reports on a current media project and regulatory debates around teen social media use. It does not constitute medical or legal advice. Figures cited reflect the sources as of publication; consult a qualified professional for guidance on individual circumstances.