Safe Surfer founder warns under-16 social media ban could cost New Zealanders their privacy

In brief

• Safe Surfer founder Rory Birkbeck supports stronger regulation of online platforms but warns age checks could increase data collection and push New Zealand towards digital ID.

• The Tauranga developer says child-safe phones and filtered household internet offer practical ways to protect children while preserving adults’ privacy.

• His work includes filtering technology, an ACC-commissioned report and the Worst Children’s Library exhibition, which brought examples of online harms to Parliament.

Safe Surfer founder Rory Birkbeck initially supported an under-16 social media restriction. Now he worries that enforcing it could require adults to surrender more personal information to technology companies.

“Honestly, we need to be starting to pull back on the amount of private information that is being held by big tech.”

The Tauranga software developer founded Safe Surfer with a friend in 2016 after becoming concerned about children’s exposure to pornography, addictive design and other online harms.

“I personally was shocked about the sheer amount of harm happening online,” he told Centrist.

His company, majority-owned by a charity, develops filtering technology and child-safe devices. Birkbeck said it reaches more than 120 countries, with more than half a million downloads of its Android app.

He supports stronger regulation. His concern is whether protecting children should require identifying everybody else.

The privacy problem

The government introduced the Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill in August.

It would require designated high-risk social-media platforms to take reasonable steps to check that users are at least 16. 

Methods outlined by the government include existing account information, facial age estimation, digital ID services and formal identification.

Platforms used by children would also have to assess and report on risks. Companies failing to meet their obligations could face penalties of up to 10 per cent of global revenue, with an online-safety regulator established within the Department of Internal Affairs.

As of 22 September, the bill had not received its first reading. Education Minister Erica Stanford said there was not enough remaining House time to hold it before the election.

Birkbeck pointed to concerns raised by the Privacy Commissioner during Parliament’s earlier inquiry into online harm. He believes dependable age checking could ultimately require broad use of digital identity.

“You’re actually going to have to force everybody to be age checked by some form of a digital ID,” he said.

The bill does not prescribe one universal digital ID system. It does, however, make platforms responsible for distinguishing adults from children and includes digital ID services among the possible methods. The privacy consequences would depend heavily on implementation.

Birkbeck’s own parliamentary submission proposes stronger platform accountability, safety-by-design standards and powers to tackle illegal material. It argues that three principles need to operate together: “safety, privacy and security”.

Start with the device

Birkbeck wants New Zealand to consider certifying phones and other devices as suitable for children under 16, shifting attention towards the hardware handed to a child.

“We go after the hardware rather than going after the software,” he said.

Safe Surfer’s partnership with Samsung extended its filtering approach into the device itself. The Kid Safe smartphone starts with calls and texts, with parents adding selected apps as children become ready.

“There’s no other apps on the phone at all to begin with,” Birkbeck said.

An app takes time to install, configure and maintain. A child-safe phone starts from a restricted state. Safe Surfer has built protections into hardware and software so it can, in his words, “effectively become a child-safe operating system.”

The same principle applies at home. Safe Surfer sells a router that filters traffic across a household network, while its service offers content blocking, internet bedtimes, browsing reports and activity alerts.

Birkbeck also pointed to online-safety educator Rob Cope’s proposal for internet providers to offer two household connections.

“Why can’t we put two internet lines into a family, one for filtered internet, one for unfiltered internet.”

Children could use a protected network while adults retain a separate connection. His parliamentary submission similarly calls for internet providers to offer opt-in certified family filtering.

Making online harms visible

In 2025, Safe Surfer worked with Samsung NZ and DDB NZ on the Worst Children’s Library, an exhibition illustrating the material children encounter online.

Fictional book covers represented harms ranging from pornography and sexual exploitation to violence and self-harm, based on data drawn from hundreds of sources.

The installation first appeared at Auckland Normal Intermediate before being taken to Parliament, putting the issue directly in front of MPs.

Birkbeck says he also led and co-authored an ACC-commissioned report on New Zealand’s digital sexual landscape and children’s safety. His contribution examined environments where young people encounter sexual material, technology-facilitated sexual violence and options for reducing harm.

His research into generative AI and his work with the exhibition feature in the third episode of the NZ Herald documentary series Under the Influence, which examines AI companion chatbots.

The proposed legislation would also bring emerging technologies, including AI companion platforms, within its regulatory framework.

For Birkbeck, the hardest part of the work has been hearing from families after serious harm has already occurred. But he remains hopeful.

“It doesn’t feel like a losing battle because it feels like we’re constantly gaining ground with the technology that we’re building.”

What families can do now

Birkbeck’s first message is to delay smartphones and unrestricted internet access where possible. Smartphone Free Childhood NZ helps parents organise collectively so children are less likely to feel singled out when friends receive phones earlier.

His other advice is practical:

• Start with a basic or child-safe device, adding functions gradually. Hand-me-down tablets also need protection.

• Protect the home network as well as individual devices, and apply the same rules at grandparents’ homes.

• Use activity reports to start conversations, and explain how recommendations, advertising and infinite scroll compete for children’s attention.

The wider goal, Birkbeck said, is technology that honours young people’s time and attention, alongside protection from harmful material.

Resources for families

• Safe Surfer: device and network filtering, monitoring and support.

• The Light Project: resources on young people and the digital sexual environment.

• Our Kids Online: Rob Cope’s online-safety talks and resources.

• Smartphone Free Childhood NZ: support for families delaying smartphones and social media.

• Under the Influence: AI companion chatbots: the NZ Herald documentary episode.

• Fight the New Drug: material and conversation guides about pornography and sexual exploitation,

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