Judgment day has arrived, and it’s bad news for YouTube, with the platform set to be included in the government’s plan to ban social media for kids under the age of 16.
The long-awaited rules of how the ban will operate are set to be presented to parliament today. This will include details of the platforms that will and will not be captured. Those expected to be exempt will be those considered to be primarily concerned with health and education.
While initially included in the ban, the government later flagged an exemption for YouTube on the basis of its use for educational purposes. Continuing the saga, last month the government again backflipped following firm advice from eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant that the platform is a major source of online harm for young people and its carve-out “appears to be inconsistent with the purpose of the act.”
According to a survey conducted by the eSafety Office, 76 per cent of children aged 10 to 15 use YouTube, more than any other platform, and 37% of those who had encountered harmful content said their most recent or impactful exposure occurred on YouTube. Harmful content included misogynistic or hateful material, violent fight videos, dangerous online challenges and content promoting disordered eating. One in seven children also reported grooming-like behaviour from adults or significantly older peers.
Speaking at the National Press Club, Inman Grant warned of a growing risk environment and inconsistent moderation efforts across platforms. “This really underscores the challenge of evaluating a platform’s relative safety at a single point in time, particularly as we see platform after platform winding back their trust and safety teams and weakening policies designed to minimise harm, making these platforms ever more perilous for our children,” she said.
With a great deal of discourse surrounding the matter, it seems the decision has finally been settled. The decision for YouTube comes just a few days after its parent company, Google, threatened legal action if the government were to remove its previous exemption on the basis of education.
Over the weekend, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that a decision had not yet been made on the matter and that his government would not be influenced by threats from social media companies.
“Our government is making it clear, we stand on the side of families,” Albanese said in a statement yesterday. “Social media has a social responsibility, and there is no doubt that Australian kids are being negatively impacted by online platforms, so I’m calling time on it.”
Unlike other social media platforms, users can still access YouTube without creating or logging into an account when the laws come into place later this year. Including YouTube in the ban will simply mean that under-16s won’t be able to access age-restricted content on the site.
Still, YouTube remains firm in its defence of the platform. “We share the Government’s goal of addressing and reducing online harms. Our position remains clear: YouTube is a video sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content, increasingly viewed on TV screens. It’s not social media,” a spokesperson for the platform said.
“The Government’s announcement today reverses a clear, public commitment to exclude YouTube from this ban. We will consider next steps and will continue to engage with the Government.”
It is understood that YouTube Kids will be exempt from the ban because there is no way for users to communicate with others through the platform.
The new laws, which come into place from December 10, could see social media companies fined up to $50 million if they fail to engage in “reasonable steps” to ban under-16s from their platforms.
The results of a Bastion survey commissioned by B&T earlier this year revealed that a significant majority of Australian parents support the government’s ban on social media access for children under the age of 16.
According to the survey data, 68 per cent of parents favour the ban on social media for children under 16, with only 22 per cent opposing the idea. This support is slightly stronger among parents with younger children aged 0-9, emphasising a protective mindset among those with children not yet in their teenage years.
“There is no one perfect solution when it comes to keeping young Australians safer online, but the social media minimum age will make a significantly positive difference to their wellbeing,” Communications Minister Anika Wells said in a statement. “There’s a place for social media, but there’s not a place for predatory algorithms targeting children.”
