Australia bans YouTube accounts for children under 16 in reversal of previous stance
YouTube was listed as an exemption in November last year when the Parliament passed world-first laws that will ban Australian children younger than 16 from platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and X.
Communications Minister Anika Wells released rules Wednesday that decide which online services are defined as 'age-restricted social media platforms' and which avoid the age limit.
4 The Australian government announced that YouTube will be among the social media platforms that must ensure account holders are at least 16 years old from December.
AP
The age restrictions take effect Dec. 10, and platforms will face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for 'failing to take responsible steps' to exclude underage account holders, a government statement said. The steps are not defined.
Wells defended applying the restrictions to YouTube and said the government would not be intimidated by threats of legal action from the platform's U.S. owner, Alphabet Inc.
'The evidence cannot be ignored that four out of 10 Australian kids report that their most recent harm was on YouTube,' Wells told reporters, referring to government research. 'We will not be intimidated by legal threats when this is a genuine fight for the wellbeing of Australian kids.'
Children will be able to access YouTube but will not be allowed to have their own YouTube accounts.
4 YouTube was listed as an exemption in November last year when the Parliament passed world-first laws that will ban Australian children younger than 16 from social media platforms.
AP
YouTube said the government's decision 'reverses a clear, public commitment to exclude YouTube from this ban.'
'We share the government's goal of addressing and reducing online harms. Our position remains 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 will consider next steps and engage with the government.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would campaign at a United Nations forum in New York in September for international support for banning children from social media.
'I know from the discussions I've had with other leaders that they are looking at this and they are considering what impact social media is having on young people in their respective nations,' Albanese said. 'It is a common experience. This is not an Australian experience.'
Last year, the government commissioned an evaluation of age assurance technologies that was to report last month on how young children could be excluded from social media.
The government had yet to receive that evaluation's final recommendations, Wells said. But she added that the platform users won't have to upload documents such as passports and driver's licenses to prove their age.
'Platforms have to provide an alternative to providing your own personal identification documents to satisfy themselves of age,' Wells said. 'These platforms know with deadly accuracy who we are, what we do and when we do it. And they know that you've had a Facebook account since 2009, so they know that you are over 16.'
4 Children will be able to access YouTube but will not be allowed to have their own YouTube accounts.
AP
4 Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured) said Australia would campaign at a United Nations forum in New York in September for international support for banning children from social media.
REUTERS
Exempt services include online gaming, messaging, education, and health apps. They are excluded because they are considered less harmful to children.
The minimum age is intended to address harmful impacts on children, including addictive behaviors caused 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.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Wire
4 hours ago
- Business Wire
Pan American Silver Appoints Pablo Marcet to its Board of Directors
VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE: PAAS) (TSX: PAAS) (" Pan American") Pan American is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Pablo Marcet to its Board of Directors effective immediately. Mr. Marcet is a distinguished mining professional with over 35 years of international experience in the exploration, development, and operation of mineral assets across the Americas and in Africa. He has held senior leadership roles spanning geology, environmental stewardship, mine operations, stakeholder engagement, government relations, mergers and acquisitions, and enterprise risk management. "I am delighted to welcome Mr. Marcet to Pan American's Board,' said Gillian Winckler, Chair of the Pan American Board. "His extensive leadership and operational experience, much of it gained in Latin America, will be a valuable addition to our Board. Pablo's appointment aligns with our ongoing Board renewal strategy and reflects our commitment to strong governance and operational excellence as we pursue disciplined growth." Mr. Marcet currently serves as Executive Director of Piche Resources, an Australian exploration and development company, and as founder and President of Geo Logic, a mining consultancy firm. He previously held senior leadership roles at Orosur Mining, Waymar Resources, Northern Orion Resources, and at BHP for 15 years, all of which were focused in Latin America. He has previously served as a director on the Boards of several other publicly listed companies, including Barrick Mining Corporation and Arcadium Lithium PLC. Mr. Marcet holds an MBA from the University of Phoenix, a Master's degree in Economic Geology from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from the University of the Pacific in California. 'As an Argentine national having spent much of my career in Latin America, I am especially proud to join Pan American, whose deep regional roots, operational footprint and commitment to responsible mining are well aligned with my professional background and values," said Mr. Marcet. "I look forward to working with the Board to further the company's strong performance and long-term value creation." About Pan American Pan American is a leading producer of silver and gold in the Americas, operating mines in Canada, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. We also own the Escobal mine in Guatemala that is currently not operating, and we hold interests in exploration and development projects. We have been operating in the Americas for over three decades, earning an industry-leading reputation for sustainability performance, operational excellence and prudent financial management. We are headquartered in Vancouver, B.C. and our shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "PAAS".
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Meta contractors say they can see Facebook users sharing private information with their AI chatbots
People love talking to AI—some, a bit too much. And according to contract workers for Meta, who review people's interactions with the company's chatbots to improve their artificial intelligence, people are a bit too willing to share personal, private information, including their real names, phone numbers, and email addresses, with Meta's AI. Business Insider spoke with four contract workers whom Meta hires through Alignerr and Scale AI–owned Outlier, two platforms that enlist human reviewers to help train AI, and the contractors noted that 'unredacted personal data was more common for the Meta projects they worked on' compared with similar projects for other clients in Silicon Valley. And according to those contractors, many users on Meta's various platforms such as Facebook and Instagram were sharing highly personal details. Users would talk to Meta's AI as if they were speaking with friends, or even romantic partners, sending selfies and even 'explicit photos.' To be clear, people getting too close to their AI chatbots is well-documented, and Meta's practice—using human contractors to assess the quality of AI-powered assistants for the sake of improving future interactions—is hardly new. Back in 2019, the Guardian reported how Apple contractors regularly heard extremely sensitive information from Siri users even though the company had 'no specific procedures to deal with sensitive recordings' at the time. Similarly, Bloomberg reported how Amazon had thousands of employees and contractors around the world manually reviewing and transcribing clips from Alexa users. Vice and Motherboard also reported on Microsoft's hired contractors recording and reviewing voice content, even though that meant contractors would often hear children's voices via accidental activation on their Xbox consoles. But Meta is a different story, particularly given its track record over the past decade when it comes to reliance on third-party contractors and the company's lapses in data governance. Meta's checkered record on user privacy In 2018, the New York Times and the Guardian reported on how Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy group funded by Republican hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer, exploited Facebook to harvest data from tens of millions of users without their consent, and used that data to profile U.S. voters and target them with personalized political ads to help elect President Donald Trump in 2016. The breach stemmed from a personality quiz app that collected data—not just from participants, but also from their friends. It led to Facebook getting hit with a $5 billion fine from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), one of the largest privacy settlements in U.S. history. The Cambridge Analytica scandal exposed broader issues with Facebook's developer platform, which had allowed for vast data access, but had limited oversight. According to internal documents released by Frances Haugen, a whistleblower, in 2021, Meta's leadership often prioritized growth and engagement over privacy and safety concerns. Meta has also faced scrutiny over its use of contractors: In 2019, Bloomberg reported how Facebook paid contractors to transcribe users' audio chats without knowing how they were obtained in the first place. (Facebook, at the time, said the recordings only came from users who had opted into the transcription services, adding it had also 'paused' that practice.) Facebook has spent years trying to rehabilitate its image: It rebranded to Meta in October 2021, framing the name change as a forward-looking shift in focus to 'the metaverse' rather than as a response to controversies surrounding misinformation, privacy, and platform safety. But Meta's legacy in handling data casts a long shadow. And while using human reviewers to improve large language models (LLMs) is common industry practice at this point, the latest report about Meta's use of contractors, and the information contractors say they're able to see, does raise fresh questions around how data is handled by the parent company of the world's most popular social networks. In a statement to Fortune, a Meta spokesperson said the company has 'strict policies that govern personal data access for all employees and contractors.' 'While we work with contractors to help improve training data quality, we intentionally limit what personal information they see, and we have processes and guardrails in place instructing them how to handle any such information they may encounter,' the spokesperson said. 'For projects focused on AI personalization … contractors are permitted in the course of their work to access certain personal information in accordance with our publicly available privacy policies and AI terms. Regardless of the project, any unauthorized sharing or misuse of personal information is a violation of our data policies, and we will take appropriate action,' they added. This story was originally featured on Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Sarepta Therapeutics to Announce Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 31, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRPT), the leader in precision genetic medicine for rare diseases, will report second quarter 2025 financial results after the Nasdaq Global Market closes on Wednesday, August 6, 2025. As announced on July 16, 2025, the Company will not be hosting a conference call to discuss results at this time. About Sarepta TherapeuticsSarepta is on an urgent mission: engineer precision genetic medicine for rare diseases that devastate lives and cut futures short. We hold leadership positions in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Duchenne) and are building a robust portfolio of programs across muscle, central nervous system, and cardiac diseases. For more information, please visit or follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram and Facebook. Internet Posting of InformationWe routinely post information that may be important to investors in the 'For Investors' section of our website at We encourage investors and potential investors to consult our website regularly for important information about us. Source: Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. View source version on Contacts Investor: Ian Estepan, 617-274-4052iestepan@ Media: Tracy Sorrentino, 617-301-8566tsorrentino@
