WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND, WEDNESDAY 10th DECEMBER 2025 – Labour and National have joined forces today in a cross-party move aimed at encouraging New Zealand MPs to take action on the issue of child safety online in Aotearoa.

In a sign of unity, Labour MP Helen White (MP for Mt Albert and Labour ,Spokesperson for Community and Voluntary Sector, Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence) and National MP Barbara Kuriger (MP for Taranaki-King Country, Deputy Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives) have co-hosted Samsung’s ‘Worst Children’s Library’ at Parliament.

The exhibit, featuring over 1,000 library books that are real-life representation of harm children have seen online, has been designed to confront politicians with the scale and severity of child cyberharms and coincides with the Australian Government’s Online Safety Amendment Bill coming into effect today. The new Australian law introduces a mandatory minimum age of 16 for accounts on certain social media platforms.

Despite increasing sentiment from New Zealanders for legislature change - including a petition of 45,000 signatures from the ‘B416 Group’ calling on a similar ban as Australia for under 16s on social media - universal support across political parties has not been secured. In April, National MP Catherine Wedd introduced ‘The Social Media Bill’, calling on the ban, however cross-party support will likely be needed for it to pass.

MP Helen White said MPs from all parties – Labour, National, ACT and Green - attended this morning, allowing them to see first-hand the sheer scale of the issue of online harm, in the hope that they can all come together to agree on a plan of action.

“My colleagues have seen this morning the true reality of what our children are seeing online, and it has shocked them. We urgently need to help parents with how they can navigate this issue – they can’t do it alone,” Helen White says.

“My hope is by seeing the ‘Worst Children’s Library’ today, all MPs regardless of their party will be willing to come together to start seriously discussing the actions we can take.”

MP Barbara Kuriger adds that the exhibit is confronting. “It’s hard to imagine what children can easily access online. Seeing it all together in a library, which is usually a safe space, is incredibly confronting and really highlights the risk of harm and the need to protect our tamariki.”

Samsung’s ‘Worst Children’s Library’ exhibit showed at Parliament, included over 1,000 library books, each a visual representation of online harm a child has experienced, drawn from hundreds of data sources. Topics ranged from toxic masculinity and hate speech, to self-harm and animal cruelty. While some titles are too upsetting to share beyond the walls of the library itself, examples include ‘100 Ways To Self-Harm’, ‘Cruel Ways To Kill Animals’, and ‘1,2,3, Count Calories WithMe’.

Simon Smith, Samsung Head of Corporate Marketing, says ‘The Worst Children’s Library’ was created in partnership with Safe Surfer, the online safety education and advocacy non-profit.

“We first partnered with Safe Surfer to launch a kid-safe range of devices that offer parents the most advanced protocols in device parental controls. Together with Safe Surfer, we’re proud to bring the exhibit to Parliament to help show MPs just what kids can easily see online and help stop the problem at the source,” Simon Smith says.

Rory Birkbeck, Safe Surfer Co-Founder & CEO adds: "Kids are accessing porn, misogyny, hate, and many other disturbing topics at the click of a button, and it’s often not intentional – many are not seeking out porn when they first see it. And now with AI “nudify” apps and deepfake technology are targeting Kiwi kids, fuelling a new wave of abuse."

“The hope from today is that all politicians, no matter your political party, can now come together to recognise the reality of what our tamariki need protecting from - especially while they are so young and don’t have the maturity to process and understand the context of the content they’re accessing.”

About Safe Surfer

Safe Surfer is an innovative platform that protects kids from harmful content like graphic violence, malware, illegal sites and pornography. Using smart technology, Safe Surfer provides a complete solution for customisable protection on mobile and home devices. Launched in 2016 by a group of parents and tech experts who could not find a tool that offered the level of protection they were looking for; the company is focused on protecting young people from the many risks they can face online.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies. The company is redefining the world of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, home appliances, network systems, and memory, system LSI, foundry and LED solutions, and delivering a seamless connected experience through its SmartThings ecosystem and open collaboration with partners. 

About the Kid-Safe Smartphone

Samsung and Safe Surfer have joined forces to deliver Samsung’s first smartphone that keeps kids connected where needed while staying protected from online harm. The Samsung x Safe Surfer Kid-Safe Smartphone provides parents with choice over what and how much their children can access via their smartphone or Tablet devices, with in-built features that filter over 50 categories of harmful content, allow parents to monitor messaging through keyword notifications, and offers a protected YouTube experience. Three levels of functionality range from access to calls, texts and camera only, to allowing safe internet browsing and monitored internet access as they mature.

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