YouTube ‘outright weird’ for saying platform isn’t safe
Tess Ikonomou and Grace Crivellaro |
YouTube has been labelled “outright weird” by the federal government for warning a teen social media ban won’t protect kids from harm on its platform.
A week out from Australia’s world-leading ban coming into effect, the video-sharing behemoth begrudgingly confirmed it would comply with the laws in a “disappointing update”, with under-16s still able to keep watching content in a signed-out state.
YouTube Australia’s public policy senior manager Rachel Lord doubled down on criticisms of the policy, saying the government’s “rushed” laws misunderstand how kids use the platform.
“Most importantly, this law will not fulfil its promise to make kids safer online,” Ms Lord said.
Communications Minister Anika Wells hit back at the tech giant’s grumblings, saying children could still watch videos with parental control measures.
“I find it outright weird that YouTube is always at pains to remind us all that it is not safe, and that there is content not appropriate for age-restricted users on their website,” Ms Wells told the National Press Club on Wednesday.
“That is a problem that YouTube needs to fix.”
Emma Mason, one of the parents who campaigned for the laws after losing her 15-year-old daughter Tilly to suicide following online bullying, echoed the sentiment.
“They need to look in their own backyard before they start throwing things, in my view,” Ms Mason said.
Children will be kicked off popular platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok in a week, with the government aiming to stop the “dopamine drip” targeting kids.
“With one law, we can protect Generation Alpha from being sucked into purgatory by predatory algorithms, described by the man who created the feature as behavioural cocaine,” Ms Wells said in her speech.
“More kids will have their time back to learn an instrument or a language, or walk their dog, or master a torpedo punt.”
She expects kids will find workarounds to keep their accounts after the ban begins, with teens already swarming to obscure social media apps such as Yope and Lemon8.
Lemon8 said on Tuesday it would restrict its users to over-16s from next week as the eSafety Commission previously warned it would closely monitor the newer app for possible inclusion.
Ms Wells said tech was constantly evolving and acknowledged the government would be playing a game of “whack-a-mole” to include more in the ban by monitoring migratory patterns to other platforms.
The minister choked up as she mentioned the names of three parents who were in the crowd without their children, each having died by suicide after being bullied online.
Her advice to parents was for them to also get off social media to make the transition easier for their children.
Ms Wells said parents who helped their kids skirt around the ban would not be punished, with the onus on tech companies to implement age assurance technology.
“This is about putting the responsibility back on the social media platforms who have been able to operate in a wild west for 20 years,” she said.
Tech companies face fines of up to $49.5 million if they fail to take “reasonable steps” to block young users from the cut-off date under the laws.
Meta will start booting children off its platforms, which includes Instagram and Facebook, from Thursday.
YouTube will automatically sign out all users it detects to be under 16 on December 10.
Users wrongly identified will be able to verify their age with third-party platform Yoti or provide government-issued ID.
A number of other platforms are using similar methods, but TikTok is yet to reveal its appeal process.
Lifeline 13 11 14
Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)
AAP
