eSafety boss reveals scale of ‘harmful’ videos on YouTube, urges ban for children

Australian children will be banned from YouTube if the Albanese government accepts the advice of its online safety chief, whose research shows four in 10 young teenagers have been exposed to harmful content, such as eating disorder videos, on the platform.

YouTube received an exemption from Labor’s world-leading social media ban for under-16s after former communications minister Michelle Rowland, now the attorney-general, deemed it had a significant educational purpose.

But eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, in formal advice delivered to new Communications Minister Anika Wells last week, said the carve-out should be removed because children were experiencing harm on the platform.

Industry sources, who weren’t authorised to speak publicly, said they expected the government to follow Inman Grant’s advice.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has advised that YouTube should not be exempted from the government’s proposed under-16s social media ban. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

That would set Wells up for a fight with Google, the tech giant that owns YouTube, just weeks into her new role but delight social media giants including TikTok, Meta and Snap, who argue the exemption makes a mockery of the government’s plans. It also threatens to be controversial among Australian parents because of its popularity among children who use its Kids’ platform to watch clips from groups such as the Wiggles.

The minister plans to decide on Inman Grant’s advice in coming weeks so that the social media ban can be launched by December. Inman Grant noted children would still be able to access YouTube without having an account.

The eSafety Commissioner will tell the National Press Club on Tuesday that risks to children of early exposure to social media were becoming clearer in her agency’s research, including on YouTube.

“Four in 10 children reported being exposed to harmful content on YouTube.”

An Australian survey of 2600 children aged 10 to 15 found that 96 per cent of them used at least one social media platform, and about 70 per cent had encountered harmful content, including exposure to misogynistic or hateful material, violent fight videos and content that promoted eating disorders.

Four in 10 children reported being exposed to harmful content on YouTube.

“This also comes as the New York Times reported earlier this month that YouTube surreptitiously rolled back its content moderation processes to keep more harmful content on its platform, even when the content violates the company’s own policies,” Inman Grant will say in her speech.

“This really underscores the challenge of evaluating a platform’s relative safety at a single point in time, particularly as we see platform after platform winding back their trust and safety teams and weakening policies designed to minimise harm, making these platforms ever-more perilous for our children. ”

A spokeswoman for YouTube told the New York Times in their response: “Our goal remains the same: to protect free expression on YouTube while mitigating egregious harm.”

But the fluidity of social media platforms has led Inman Grant to suggest that platforms not be specifically named in Labor’s new rules, lest they change in nature. Instead, they should be marked against a clear set of criteria.

Communications Minister Anika Wells.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

She also recommended that Wells consider new rules to exclude “lower-risk” services that were appropriate for young children. Otherwise, the eSafety Commission would use its discretion not to enforce compliance for platforms that it deemed safe.

“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,” Inman Grant will say.

A spokesman for Wells said she would carefully consider the advice. “Her top priority is making sure the draft rules fulfil the objective of the act – protecting children from the harms of social media,” he said.

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