{"id":872154,"date":"2025-09-11T02:12:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T07:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/11\/youtube-to-be-included-in-australias-social-media-ban-for-children-under-16\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T02:12:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T07:12:22","slug":"youtube-to-be-included-in-australias-social-media-ban-for-children-under-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/11\/youtube-to-be-included-in-australias-social-media-ban-for-children-under-16\/","title":{"rendered":"YouTube to be included in Australia\u2019s social media ban for children under 16"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Brisbane, Australia<\/span> \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 <\/cite><\/p>\n

Australia has picked a fight with the world\u2019s largest video platform by backtracking on an earlier promise to exclude YouTube in its social media ban for children under 16.<\/p>\n

The Labor government said Wednesday the site, which is owned by Google\u2019s parent company Alphabet, will be subject to the same rules as other leading platforms<\/a> \u2013 Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and X \u2013 under legislation due to come into effect in December.<\/p>\n

The ban puts the onus on social media platforms to prevent children under 16 from having an account on their sites, or risk fines of nearly 50 million Australian dollars ($32 million).<\/p>\n

A YouTube spokesperson said the decision to include it in the ban \u201creverses a clear, public commitment\u201d from the government to treat the site as an educational tool.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will consider next steps and will continue to engage with the government,\u201d the spokesman said, omitting any comment on the status of reported legal threats. YouTube Kids won\u2019t be included in the ban because it doesn\u2019t allow users to upload videos, or comment on them.<\/p>\n

Speaking Wednesday, Communications Minister Anika Wells likened the ban to teaching children to swim \u2013 a basic life skill in Australia where many suburban homes come with a swimming pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is like trying to teach your kids to swim in the open ocean, with the (rip currents) and the sharks, compared to at the local council pool,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t control the ocean, but we can police the sharks, and that\u2019s why I will not be intimidated by legal threats when this is a genuine fight for the well-being of Australian kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government said the decision to include YouTube was influenced by a survey released by Australia\u2019s independent online regulator, the eSafety Commission, this month that found 37% of children surveyed had reported seeing harmful content on the site.<\/p>\n

Harmful content includes sexist, misogynistic or hateful ideas, dangerous online challenges or fight videos, or content that encourages unhealthy eating or exercise habits.<\/p>\n

\u201cYouTube uses the same persuasive design features as other social media platforms, like infinite scroll, like autoplay and algorithmic feed,\u201d Wells told Parliament Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur kids don\u2019t stand a chance, and that is why I accepted the eSafety (Commission) recommendation that YouTube should not be treated differently from other social media platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government passed what it has called \u201cworld-leading\u201d legislation last year, providing a 12-month buffer to figure out how it was going to work.<\/p>\n

As part of its research, the government commissioned age assurance verification trials to test the limits of different technologies to inform the rules it\u2019ll impose on social media companies.<\/p>\n

A preliminary report released in June reached 12 findings<\/a>, including that age verification can be done in a \u201cprivate, robust and effective\u201d way. But it also found there was no \u201csingle ubiquitous solution\u201d that would suit all cases, nor one that was 100% effective.<\/p>\n

The report also said \u201cconcerning evidence\u201d had emerged that platforms were \u201cover-anticipating the eventual needs of regulators about providing personal information for future investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome providers were found to be building tools to enable regulators, law enforcement or Coroners to retrace the actions taken by individuals to verify their age which could lead to increased risk of privacy breaches due to unnecessary and disproportionate collection and retention of data,\u201d the preliminary report found.<\/p>\n

Privacy concerns have been raised by critics of the plan \u2013 while others say it will limit options for isolated and vulnerable children who rely on social platforms for support.<\/p>\n

Wells has acknowledged the ban won\u2019t be perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids, God bless them, are going to find a way around this. Maybe they\u2019re all going to swarm on LinkedIn. We don\u2019t know,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

YouTube and other platforms say they\u2019re already taking steps to protect children online.<\/p>\n

This week, YouTube announced new trials of AI in the United States<\/a> to interpret a \u201cvariety of signals\u201d to determine if a user is under 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese signals include the types of videos a user is searching for, the categories of videos they have watched, or the longevity of the account,\u201d YouTube said in a statement.<\/p>\n

If users are determined to be under 18, personalized ads will be deactivated, well-being tools will be activated, and repetitive viewing will be limited for some kinds of content, the company said.<\/p>\n

Platforms have been lobbying against the Australian ban \u2013 appealing to the government and Australian parents to rethink the proposal.<\/p>\n

TikTok has recently run ads on Facebook in the country touting the platform as an educational tool. \u201cFrom fishing to chef skills, Aussie teens are learning something new every day on TikTok,\u201d says one online ad.<\/p>\n

Wells revealed Wednesday that YouTube had dispatched a representative of the Wiggles,<\/a> the hugely popular Australian children\u2019s entertainment group, to argue against its inclusion in the ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Wiggles are a treasured Australian institution. But like I said to them, you\u2019re arguing that my 4-year-old twins right to have a YouTube login is more important than the fact that four out of 10 of their peers will experience online harm on YouTube, and they might be two of those four,\u201d Wells told CNN affiliate 9 News, citing a recent survey by the eSafety Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just didn\u2019t find that argument ultimately persuasive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost 3,500 Australian children, ages 10-17, took part in the \u201cKeeping Kids Safe\u201d survey between December 2024 and February 2025.<\/p>\n

Three out of four reported seeing harmful content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brisbane, Australia \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Australia has picked a fight with the world\u2019s largest video platform by backtracking on an earlier promise to exclude YouTube in its social media ban for children under 16. The Labor government said Wednesday the site, which is owned by Google\u2019s parent company Alphabet, will be subject to the same rules as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":872155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4582,49,104640],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-872154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-included","category-youtube","category-youtube-videos"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}