Australian teenagers under age 16 will be barred from making YouTube accounts, in an expansion of the country’s world-first ban on social media for young people.
The decision comes after the country’s internet regulator asked the government to include YouTube in its ban on social media for under-16s last month. A previous decision had allowed YouTube to sidestep the policy, which will go into effect later this year.
“We know that social media is doing social harm,” Anthony Albanese, Australia’s centre-left prime minister, said during a press conference.
“My government and this parliament are ready to take action to protect young Australians”.
The ban for under-16s also includes social media platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X.
Many Australians appear on board with some age restrictions. In a survey of nearly 4,000 Australians published last month, around nine out of ten respondents said they want some type of “age assurance” on social media.
YouTube is ‘not social media,’ company says
About three in four 10- to 15-year-olds in Australia have used YouTube, making it more popular than other major platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, according to a survey from the office of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant.
Last month, Inman Grant recommended that YouTube be included in the social media ban due to evidence that children experience harmful content on the platform.
In the survey, 37 per cent of children who had seen any harmful content online said they saw it on YouTube.
“Given the known risk of harms on YouTube … and without sufficient evidence demonstrating that YouTube predominately provides beneficial experiences for children under 16, providing a specific carve out for YouTube appears to be inconsistent with the purpose of the Act,” Inman Grant’s June recommendations read.
Under the new rules, children under 16 will still be able to access YouTube, but they will not be able to make accounts.
In a statement, YouTube said it shares the government’s goal of “addressing and reducing online harms,” but that it should not be included in the ban because of the service it provides.
“Our position remains clear: YouTube is a video sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content,” the company said. “It’s not social media”.
Australia had previously excluded YouTube from the social media ban because it is a service that “[is] primarily for the purposes of education and health support,” the government said in a press release from last year.
YouTube said it is “considering next steps” while continuing to work with the government. Australian media reported that this could include a court challenge.
The ban officially comes into place on December 10.
