American officials seem open to the idea of a crack-down on companies like Google and Facebook.

Russia and China continue to pose security threats for New Zealand and its Five Eyes partners.

SIS and GCSB Minister, Andrew Little, is in London for an international security meeting, along with Attorney-General David Parker.

Little says America is always reluctant to legislate on this issue.

He told Mike Hosking he's had a one-on-one meeting with US Attorney-General William Barr, who thinks those companies have to take responsibility for what's happening on their networks.

“State-sponsored operators are a problem, particularly Russia and China, who have huge networks and operations to cause instability or cyber intrusions. “

Little says private operators are also a big problem, especially in the area of child sexual exploitation.

“They've talked about 5G and making sure new technologies deployed on telecommunications networks are secure.

“Every country knows the issue is staring them square in the face.”