E-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant says YouTube exemption should be removed from under-16s social media age ban
E-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has called on YouTube to be included in the under-16s social media ban, which is set to come into effect from December.
Ahead of her speech at Canberra’s National Press Club on Wednesday, Ms Inman Grant wrote to Communications Minister Annika Wells recommending YouTube be removed from the exemptions.
Previously the video streaming giant, which is owned by Google, was exempt from the ban as it can be used as an educational tool.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.While it will be up to Ms Wells to determine which platforms are included in the ban, the online safety tsar said there was evidence “children are experiencing the types of harms” on the video platform.
Ms Inman Grant said she also recommended the official rules underscoring the ban to not include specific platforms in the ban.
She said this was given the “rapidly evolving nature of technology and the continuously shifting risk profile of online services”.
Backing up the recommendation is research which Ms Inman Grant will announce during her speech on Wednesday which found that seven out of 10 children aged between 10 to 15 have encountered harmful content like misogynistic or hateful material, content which promotes disordered eating, violent fight videos and dangerous online challenges.
Three-quarters of the content was found on social media, and YouTube was cited as the platform which four out or 10 kids reported viewing the harmful content.
She will also say that the fast-moving nature of technology makes it difficult to evaluate a “platform’s relative safety at a single point in time,” particularly due to the growing trend of platforms “winding back their trust and safety teams and weakening policies designed to minimum harm”.
Ms Inman Grant will also use her speech to say that the initial age assurance trial has shown that the technology can be used in Australia in a way that is “private, robust and effective”.
“eSafety will start consulting upon our regulatory framework this week and will use this varied feedback to further hone our regulatory guidance,” she is expected to say.
