COMMENT:

Looks like the days of reckless abandon are coming to an end for social media - and good thing too.

I may have mentioned before that I don't use social media, never have and never will. If I want to show someone what I'm having for lunch, I'll send an email or a text.

But what's gone wrong with social media isn't silly cats and fish n chips, but that it has become a sewer for all the worst of humanity.

So with the Christchurch attacks still fresh in all our minds, today's NZ Herald says our Government will take a leading role in moves to regulate social media.

Right now, although social media companies are supposed to be bound by New Zealand law, they have a whopping great get-out-of-jail-free card.

Technically, they can't be held liable for what users publish on their sites.

They have wriggled on this hook for a long time. They claim they're not actually publishing companies but at the same time, they instantly claim copyright to anything you post.

And they distribute material from other users which their algorithms say you might want to look at or read or comment on.

How Facebook especially has got away with operating a live streaming facility without technically being treated as a broadcaster, and therefore bound by good taste and decency, is beyond me.

So all of this is going to change and it's a good thing too.