eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant is pushing for YouTube to be captured by the federal government’s social media ban for children under 16.
The legislation, due to be enforced by mid-December, will require TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, X, Instagram and Facebook to take reasonable steps to prevent teens from holding an account.
Last year, Labor offered YouTube an exemption because of its educational uses.
Inman Grant told communications minister Anika Wells that a carve-out for the video-streaming giant made no sense, urging the government to rethink its decision.
“Youtube was the only one exempted,” she said in an address to the National Press Club.
“Our recommendation was that no specific platform be exempted because their relative risks and harms can change at any given moment, as well as the different features they incorporate.
“This is a dynamic field, and we have to be able to stay ahead.”
Inman Grant said that “opaque algorithms” are blurring previously distinct lines and leaving kids “powerless” to fight back.
“My main concern with these platforms is obviously that harm’s happening, but I talked about the persuasive design features – I mean Youtube has mastered those,” she said.
“That opaque algorithm is driving users down rabbit holes that they are powerless to fight against.
“You’ve got to think about the constant notifications. This is not a fair fight where our kids are concerned vis-à-vis social media sites.”
Inman Grant released the agency’s latest research. It found that 96% of children aged 10 to 15 had used at least one social media platform.
The survey, which included more than 2,600 children in that age range, revealed that 75% had encountered content associated with harm, including exposure to misogynistic or hateful material, dangerous online challenges, violent fight videos, and content promoting disordered eating.
“YouTube was the most frequently cited platform, with almost four in 10 children reporting exposure to content associated with harm there,” Inman Grant said.
“This also comes as the New York Times reported earlier this month that YouTube surreptitiously rolled back its content moderation processes to keep more harmful content on its platform, even when the content violates the company’s own policies.
“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.”
Inman Grant also said AI-powered age estimation tools will play a key role in enforcing the ban, following a government-funded trial which found the approach to be “private, robust and effective”.
YouTube has hit back at the eSafety commissioner’s recommendations, claiming the advice has ignored Australian families, teachers, broad community sentiment and the government’s own previous decision.
“This recommendation is in direct contradiction to the government’s decision to exempt YouTube from the ban,” said Rachel Lord, public policy and government relations senior manager at YouTube ANZ.
“The government’s own research confirmed there was ‘broad agreement that YouTube is suitable for younger users’. 85% of children and 68.5% of parents said YouTube was appropriate for those aged 15 years and under, in contrast to social media companies TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.
“YouTube is not a social media platform; it is a video streaming platform with a library of free, high-quality content, and TV screens are increasingly the most popular place to watch.”
AdNews contacted the communications minister for comment.
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