The Australian government announced YouTube will probably be among the many social media platforms that must ensure account holders are not less than 16-years-old from December, reversing a position taken months ago on the favored video-sharing service.
YouTube was listed as an exemption in November last yr when the Parliament passed world-first laws that may ban Australian children younger than 16 from platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and X.
Communications Minister Anika Wells released rules Wednesday that determine which online services are defined as “age-restricted social media platforms” and which avoid the age limit.
The age restrictions take effect Dec. 10 and platforms will face fines of as much as 50 million Australian dollars (US$33 million) for “failing to take responsible steps” to exclude underage account holders, a government statement said. The steps usually are not defined.
Wells defended applying the restrictions to YouTube and said the federal government wouldn’t be intimidated by threats of legal motion from the platform’s U.S. owner, Alphabet Inc.
“The evidence can’t be ignored that 4 out of 10 Australian kids report that their most up-to-date harm was on YouTube,” Wells told reporters, referring to government research. “We is not going to be intimidated by legal threats when it is a real fight for the wellbeing of Australian kids.”
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Children will give you the chance to access YouTube but is not going to be allowed to have their very own YouTube accounts.
YouTube said the federal government’s decision “reverses a transparent, public commitment to exclude YouTube from this ban.”
“We share the federal government’s goal of addressing and reducing online harms. Our position stays 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 YouTube statement said, noting it can consider next steps and have interaction with the federal government.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would campaign at a United Nations forum in Latest York in September for international support for banning children from social media.
“I do know from the discussions I’ve had with other leaders that they’re this and so they are considering what impact social media is having on young people of their respective nations,” Albanese said. “It’s a typical experience. This will not be an Australian experience.”
Last yr, the federal government commissioned an evaluation of age assurance technologies that was to report last month on how young children may very well be excluded from social media.
The federal government had yet to receive that analysis’s final recommendations, Wells said. But she added the platform users won’t need to upload documents similar to passports and driver’s licenses to prove their age.
“Platforms have to offer an alternative choice to providing your individual personal identification documents to satisfy themselves of age,” Wells said. “These platforms know with deadly accuracy who we’re, what we do and once we do it. And so they know that you simply’ve had a Facebook account since 2009, in order that they know that you simply are over 16.”
Exempt services include online gaming, messaging, education and health apps. They’re excluded because they’re considered less harmful to children.
The minimum age is meant to deal with harmful impacts on children including addictive behaviors brought on by persuasive or manipulative platform design features, social isolation, sleep interference, poor mental and physical health, low life-satisfaction and exposure to inappropriate and harmful content, government documents say.
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