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One in every four teens in New Zealand is presenting with very severe mental health illness. What's interesting about
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the likes of you know social media companies is that a lot of them are acting in a way like tobacco companies
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have been for a long period of time. Right? So what we're looking to do is introduce a minimum age for social media
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of 16. There's been a lot of research over a long period of time that has demonstrated that there is something
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that's happened in our young people from when the introduction of the smartphone
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when the camera was introduced also when social media really started to take off.
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So, for a long time, we've gone out of our way to protect our kids. And, you
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know, we've got a minimum driving age. We've got a minimum age for you to
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purchase alcohol, a minimum age for you to purchase tobacco products. But there's no minimum aid for social media.
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And the reality of it is that it is changing the way that the chemistry in our children's brain is developing. And
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what children actually need is they need the one-on-one engagement. They need to
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be out with a ball on the grounds on a weekend and spending 42 hours online, which is the average for New Zealand
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children, which is an outofdate statistic. 42 hours. Children in New Zealand spend 42 hours online per week.
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Per week.
