Australia outlaws YouTube for teens as media ban widens
Australia has announced that YouTube is going to be added to the sites covered by their unique social media ban for teenagers.
The video-sharing site was originally exempt from the ban but that decision has now been reversed with the possibility of a legal challenge now on the way.
Due to a survey which found that 37% of minors reported harmful content on the site, the worst showing for a social media platform, Australia decided to comply with their internet regulator’s urges.
Australian PM Anthony Albanese confirmed the ban extension. Pic: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated: ‘I’m calling time on it.’
He went on to highlight that Australian children were being negatively affected by online platforms and reminded social media platforms of the responsibility that they have to keep users safe..
The PM added: ‘I want Australian parents to know that we have their backs.’
The ban will broaden to include YouTube from December onwards.
YouTube has hit back at the decision, stating that it is used by nearly three-quarters of Australians aged 13 to 15 and should not be classified as social media because its main activity is hosting videos.
A YouTube spokesperson wrote: ‘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.’
Platforms that were already covered by the ban, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, were unhappy with YouTube’s exemption last year and complained that it has key similarities to their products, including letting users interact and recommending content through an algorithm based on activity.
Originally, the government had exempted YouTube due to its popularity with teachers but now all accounts for under-16s will be outlawed, with parents and teachers allowed to show videos on it to minors.
YouTube have hit back at the decision. Pic: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images
Angela Falkenberg, President of the Australian Primary Principals Association, stated: ‘Teachers are always curators of any resource for appropriateness (and) will be judicious.’
Adam Marre, Chief Information Security Officer at cybersecurity firm Arctic Wolf, added that social media platforms like YouTube have been flooded with misinformation due to the rise in Artificial Intelligence.
He said: ‘The Australian government’s move to regulate YouTube is an important step in pushing back against the unchecked power of big tech and protecting kids.’
The decision now brings a potential legal challenge from Alphabet, the company that owns YouTube, after they already threatened to withdraw some Google services from Australia in 2021 to avoid a law forcing it to pay news outlets for content appearing in searches.
Last week, YouTube told Reuters that it had written to the government urging it ‘to uphold the integrity of the legislative process’.
Australian media then said YouTube threatened a court challenge, but YouTube did not confirm that.
Communications Minister Anika Wells told Australian parliament: ‘I will not be intimidated by legal threats when this is a genuine fight for the well-being of Australian kids.’
The Australian government is due to receive a report in the near future on tests of age-checking products, with the results set to influence the enforcement of the ban introduced last November.
Currently, social media platforms that fail to take the ‘reasonable steps’ to keep out Australians younger than 16 will face a fine of up to A$49.5million (€27.9million).
