A spokesperson for online safety agency Netsafe says the Government is out of step with attempts to make the internet safer for young people.
Australia is considering restricting access to social media sites for people under 16 because of concerns over online bullying, access to inappropriate material, and social harm.
Amokura Panoho says Netsafe is watching with interest -especially as the New Zealand Government scrapped its own online safety review in May.
“When you’ve got the tech companies like Google, Meta and Snap broadly supportive of these regulations – they obviously acknowledge the need for an updated framework to reflect those technological and societal changes but this government has halted that project citing concerns around free speech,” she says
Ms Panoho says political rhetoric is encouraging increasing online racist abuse of Māori – especially wāhine who have chosen to wear moko kauae.
