Summarised by Centrist
Labour wants to establish an online safety regulator with responsibilities extending beyond children, less than three weeks after supporting legislation built around banning under-16s from social media.
The Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill was introduced on 24 August. It has not yet received its first reading, but would create new regulatory machinery requiring social-media companies to prevent children under 16 from holding accounts and assess risks to young users.
Labour has now included an online safety regulator in its wider AI Action Plan. The party says the regulator would sit within the Department of Internal Affairs, although the Free Speech Union says Labour has also suggested to media that it could be independent.
The union argues that the shift shows how regulation introduced under the popular banner of protecting children can quickly expand into government oversight of adults’ online activity.
Executive director Jillaine Heather described Labour’s proposal as a “vague, sweeping mandate to police online speech dressed up as child safety and AI regulation”.
“The under-16 ban and AI risks are being used as Trojan horses for something much bigger,” she said, warning of “far greater government control over what Kiwis can say online”.
Labour has not yet detailed exactly what content the regulator could oversee, what enforcement powers it would hold or what protections would prevent lawful expression from being restricted. That means the Free Speech Union’s warning remains a prediction about where the policy could lead, rather than evidence that Labour has already proposed censoring particular views.
Re-published from the Centrist with permission
