‘We need to be aware': eSafety Commissioner wants to ban YouTube for under 16-year-olds
Shadow Cabinet Secretary Andrew Wallace says we 'need to listen' to Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant on whether the social media ban should include YouTube.
'She is telling us that the evidence is saying … 37 per cent of the complaints her office receives were in relation to complaints around YouTube,' Mr Wallace told Sky News Australia.
'YouTube is almost ubiquitous in our society.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
4 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Not all screen time is equal: Wrestling with a YouTube ban for kids
Early on in my parenting journey a girlfriend sent a post that said, 'To say all screen time is the same is like saying all paper time is the same.' Or like saying that reading this masthead is the same quality of paper time as reading New Idea or opening a utility bill, or reading philosophy or folding origami. It is obvious how ridiculous that argument is. Surely an 11-year-old reading The Day My Butt Exploded is not the same quality of paper time as reading Harry Potter. It is the same for screen time. Not all screen time is equal. Psychologists and parenting experts have used analogies galore to explain this to parents, schools and governments. Like the nutritional pyramid, Jocelyn Brewer refers to 'Digital Nutrition' with the 'good screen time' at the bottom, where wholegrains are and the 'sometimes screen time' at the top with lollies and chocolate. While YouTube does have some educational videos and helpful 'instructionals', it also has a lot of toxic video content. I'm talking about misogynistic content, violent content and young people doing really stupid stuff that our kids then try to replicate, and I mean more stupid than the Mentos in the Diet Coke bottle. I am sceptical about the social media ban for under-16s, not because I am a great fan of social media for kids, but because I'm not confident it will work. If kids under 16 have figured out how to bypass Lime Bike rentals, you don't think they'll figure out how to use social media? Loading But if we are moving forward with a social media ban, and it looks like we are, then there are some things that will make it work. The first is Australian parents getting behind it. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the ban was designed so parents could say to their children social media is 'against the law'. That only works if we as parents don't succumb to the wiles of our children. Don't budge if Jonny or Susie are using it. Hold the line. Currently, YouTube has been exempted from the ban. But the eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, wants to change that. Frankly, it would be farcical to ban social media but allow YouTube for under-16s. While it doesn't have the 'social' elements of other sites, it has the same dangerous content and misinformation. It would be like banning fast food but keeping McDonalds. To say that YouTube is somehow a better use of screen time than other social media apps such as Snapchat, TikTok or Instagram is nuts. So good on Inman Grant for pointing that out.
Sydney Morning Herald
4 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Social media ban must look to future teen trends
The federal government plans to introduce its social media ban for under-16s by December. Announced to mixed reviews last year – parent groups were ecstatic, while mental health organisations have warned about the risk of isolating vulnerable teens and tech commentators questioned the data security trade-offs – the ban would eventually require all Australians to complete an age verification process to use Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and other social media apps. The exact parameters of the ban remain to be seen, and will need to pass parliament, but last week, the Herald reported eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant had advised the government to not restrict its new rules to specific social media platforms. Inman Grant is specifically seeking to include video platform YouTube in the ban, after it previously received an exemption due to its 'significant educational purpose'. According to the eSafety Commission's research, four in 10 young teenagers have been exposed to harmful content, such as eating disorder videos, misogynistic or hateful material, or violent fight videos, while watching YouTube. As the Albanese government finalises the details of its attempt to restrict social media on a national scale, the Sun-Herald believes it is extremely prudent to not include a discrete list of platforms the rules cover. Indeed, as Emily Kowal reports in today's Sun-Herald, there are emerging forms of online engagement driven by artificial intelligence, for which regulation should also be considered. Companion chatbots such as Replika and allow users to converse, call and exchange photos and videos with an AI 'friend'. The user can style this friend as their favourite character from a movie, a celebrity, or someone they know in real life. Loading It is not hard to see why child safety experts are concerned. The eSafety Commissioner said she had received reports of children as young as 10 spending hours on chatbots, which AI researchers say learn from their user, evolving to respond in ways to keep them talking for longer. Some bots are designed to be mean, others tend towards pornographic or other forms of conversation inappropriate for children. All collect information about their user, and few have any real mechanism to validate their user's age.
The Age
4 hours ago
- The Age
Social media ban must look to future teen trends
The federal government plans to introduce its social media ban for under-16s by December. Announced to mixed reviews last year – parent groups were ecstatic, while mental health organisations have warned about the risk of isolating vulnerable teens and tech commentators questioned the data security trade-offs – the ban would eventually require all Australians to complete an age verification process to use Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and other social media apps. The exact parameters of the ban remain to be seen, and will need to pass parliament, but last week, the Herald reported eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant had advised the government to not restrict its new rules to specific social media platforms. Inman Grant is specifically seeking to include video platform YouTube in the ban, after it previously received an exemption due to its 'significant educational purpose'. According to the eSafety Commission's research, four in 10 young teenagers have been exposed to harmful content, such as eating disorder videos, misogynistic or hateful material, or violent fight videos, while watching YouTube. As the Albanese government finalises the details of its attempt to restrict social media on a national scale, the Sun-Herald believes it is extremely prudent to not include a discrete list of platforms the rules cover. Indeed, as Emily Kowal reports in today's Sun-Herald, there are emerging forms of online engagement driven by artificial intelligence, for which regulation should also be considered. Companion chatbots such as Replika and allow users to converse, call and exchange photos and videos with an AI 'friend'. The user can style this friend as their favourite character from a movie, a celebrity, or someone they know in real life. Loading It is not hard to see why child safety experts are concerned. The eSafety Commissioner said she had received reports of children as young as 10 spending hours on chatbots, which AI researchers say learn from their user, evolving to respond in ways to keep them talking for longer. Some bots are designed to be mean, others tend towards pornographic or other forms of conversation inappropriate for children. All collect information about their user, and few have any real mechanism to validate their user's age.
