Scrap YouTube exemption to social media ban, says eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant
Julie Inman Grant has warned that YouTube poses similar risks to most platforms, as she confirms search engines will face new rules to prevent children accessing adult content.
Labor should axe its decision to carve out YouTube from its new social media age restrictions, the eSafety Commissioner has advised, intensifying pressure on Communications Minister Anika Wells to reverse the exemption.
The recommendation, made by the regulator responsible for enforcing the ban, comes ahead of a National Press Club address by commissioner Julie Inman Grant on Tuesday, where she will unveil separate obligations on search engines to prevent children from accessing pornography and other age-inappropriate material.
The social media ban, slated to take effect in December, will require TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Meta subsidiary sites Instagram and Facebook to “take reasonable steps to prevent persons under 16 years of age from creating or holding an account”.
In November, however, then-communications minister Michele Rowland revealed that YouTube would be exempt from the legislation, saying while it shared many similarities with other social media platforms, it had a “significant purpose to enable young people to get the education and health support they need”.
The carve-out enraged rival platforms, which questioned why YouTube was included on a draft list of exempt services, even as its features, such as its “Shorts” section of video snippets, closely resemble those on TikTok and Instagram.
In advice prepared for Ms Wells and obtained by The Australian, the eSafety Commissioner recommended YouTube be removed from the list, saying the platform contained the online harms the proposed social media ban was intended to address.
“Given the known risk of harms on YouTube, the similarity of its functionality to other online services, and without sufficient evidence demonstrating YouTube predominantly provides beneficial experiences for children under 16, providing a specific carve-out for YouTube appears to be inconsistent with the purposes of the act,” the advice read.
A survey by the eSafety Commissioner earlier this year found that YouTube was the most used platform by 10 to 15-year-olds by a significant margin – 76 per cent used the site, it found, far outpacing other platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.
Among children who had encountered potentially harmful online content, 37 per cent said their most recent or most memorable experience took place on YouTube.
The eSafety Commissioner urged that specific social media platforms should not be demarcated under the ban’s rules, given the “rapidly evolving nature of technology and the continuously shifting risk profile on online services”.
To ensure the government’s intention in establishing the ban was well understood and to avoid future enforcement challenges, an explanatory statement should accompany the ban’s rules, the commissioner advised.
Further, it recommended the ban’s rules be altered such that they reflected the risk posed by an individual platform rather than around the service it provided, and the introduction of a new exemption for platforms specifically designed to provide safer, age-appropriate content.
“It will now be up to the minister to make the rules and have them tabled with parliament to be considered through the usual parliamentary scrutiny process,” Ms Inman Grant will tell the Press Club on Tuesday.
Alongside its recommendation to scrap YouTube’s carve-out, The Australian can reveal that the eSafety Commission will move to establish three industry-specific codes aimed at shielding children from age-inappropriate online content, such as pornography and violent material. The new codes will cover search engines, hosting services and internet carriage services such as telecommunications companies, and are among a broader suite of eight codes first proposed last July to bolster online protections for children.
Five codes – covering app stores, device manufactures, social media services, other relevant electronic services such as online dating websites and gaming chats, and so-called “designated internet services” such as file storage services – will be established.
“If I am not satisfied these industry codes meet appropriate community safeguards, I will move to developing mandatory standards,” Ms Inman Grant will say, flagging a final determination by the end of July.
Breaches of the new codes will attract penalties equivalent to those under the social media age restrictions, which threaten companies with fines of up to $50m for “systematic” violations.
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