Give us a voice, and we will speak

By Taara Malhi, Youth Press Gallery, Youth Parliament 2025

Photo caption: The Online Safety Parliamentary Working Group in action

Note: Articles in this newsletter edition were produced by the Youth Press Gallery at various stages of the Youth Parliament 2025 programme. Accordingly, the content presented reflects the context and timing at the date of its original writing.

Online safety policies and decisions impact rangatahi (young people) in Aotearoa New Zealand the most and they're also often forgotten in the decision-making process. In their report, co-chairs Jasper Rhodes and Te Ari Paranihi, with their qualified team of Youth MPs have found three areas of research and proposal; Education, Legislation, Restriction.

“Rangatahi have a very limited understanding of how to keep themselves safe online.” This correlates significantly with their risk of encountering online harm. This raises the question “How can rangatahi be safe online when they haven’t been taught how to do so?” and leads to the recommendation to incorporate a consistent and comprehensive curriculum framework that teaches digital citizenship. They also propose that the age online safety is taught at is reviewed every parliamentary term in order to keep up with the “alarming rate at which technology is becoming increasingly ubiquitous.”

Another issue they identified was that several pieces of legislation that protect Kiwis are outdated. Some legislation is older than the majority of mega-tech corporations or social media platforms. Specifically, they are:

• Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 (10 years old)
• Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 (31 years old)
• Broadcasting Act 1989 (35 years old)

“None of these pieces of legislation protect rangatahi from online grooming from predators, artificial intelligence or deepfakes, or algorithms boosting harmful and extremist content.” As online content becomes more and more ingrained into our everyday lives, it's imperative that we have the protections in place to hold perpetrators accountable and prevent harm from occurring in the first place. The Youth MPs recommended that to combat this pressing issue that there must be comprehensive reviews of these legislations, as well as futureproofing them by ensuring they can be adapted to the ever-changing world of social media.

The final issue identified was the lack of rangatahi voice on The Member’s Social Media (Age-Restricted Users) Bill. “It is not often commonplace for the government to critically listen to rangatahi when making decisions that affect them. Such is the case in this bill. This reflects a broader lack of rangatahi voice in decision-making.” To reconcile this grievance, they recommended the government set up a Youth Advisory Group. They emphasise the importance of consulting and working with rangatahi to make these laws relevant and reasonable, coherently making the most positive impact.

Overall, online safety is a wide and complex subject matter. There’s no one way to approach the variety of circumstances. However, it is vital that the voices of rangatahi and the findings of these Youth MPs are taken into deep consideration. rangatahi are the future of our country, and we must set them in the best possible position to succeed.