eSafety Commissioner corrects YouTube’s ‘mistaken claims’

Hitting back at YouTube, the eSafety Commissioner accused the video platform of muddying the waters after she recommended it be captured in Labor’s social media ban for kids.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant says YouTube should be included in Labor’s impending social media ban for children. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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The eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has hit back at YouTube, accusing the video-sharing site of peddling “mistaken claims” after it lashed her recommendation that it be captured in an impending social media ban for children.

The video platform was extended an exemption last year from new restrictions, slated to take effect in December, which will require social media platforms to “take reasonable steps to prevent persons under 16 years of age from creating or holding an account”.

In advice handed to Communications Minister Anika Wells last week, Ms Inman Grant called for the government to scrap YouTube’s exemption, saying it hosted content harmful to children.

YouTube rebuked the regulator responsible for enforcing the ban, accusing it of providing “inconsistent and contradictory” advice and demanding the government honour its previous public commitments.

In a statement on Thursday, Ms Inman Grant returned serve, saying argued YouTube contained many features and functions that the impending social media age restrictions were designed to address. Pointing to features such as autoplay, which automatically starts a new video when the previous one ends, and algorithms designed to keep users watching, the eSafety Commissioner said these tools could “encourage excessive consumption without breaks and amplify exposure to harmful content.”

She also rejected the notion that the impending ban would restrict children’s access to educational content, saying it would simply prevent those under 16 from creating an account.

“There is nothing in the legislation that prevents educators with their own accounts from continuing to incorporate school-approved educational content on YouTube or any other service just as they do now,” she said.

Rachel Lord, YouTube’s public policy lead for Australia and New Zealand, renewed her criticism of Ms Inman Grant’s advice in response, saying prohibiting children from holding accounts would make them less safe.

“The eSafety Commissioner’s advice for younger people to use YouTube in a ‘logged-out’ state deprives them of age-appropriate experiences and additional safety guardrails we specifically designed for younger people,” she said.

Ms Lord disputed the commissioner’s claims that YouTube was a social media platform and highlighted Labor’s previous promise to provide a carve-out for the video sharing site. “eSafety’s advice to include YouTube in the social media ban is in direct contradiction to the government’s own commitment, its own research on community sentiment, independent research, and the view of Australian parents, teachers and other key stakeholders in this debate.”