Communications minister Anika Wells is speaking to ABC News Breakfast this morning about the government’s formal decision to include YouTube in the under-16s social media ban.
As aged care minister Wells was tasked with enacting parts of the aged care royal commission. Now she is being tested with implementing the ban in the face of pushback from the tech giants.
On the YouTube inclusion Wells says:
Fresh evidence from the eSafety Commissioner is that 37% of kids had their most recent or most impactful online harm at the hands of YouTube. That is evidence that I can’t ignore and they are joining the ban.
What about YouTube Kids?
No, that doesn’t qualify for the laws because it doesn’t have the ability to upload videos or make comments on videos. We can all agree, social media has its place. We use YouTube kids when you need to occupy your child while you are working but persuasive and predatory algorithms do not have a place and that is what we are cracking down on.
Q: How will kids be prevented from logging on? People don’t actually log onto YouTube and parents can’t watch their kids all the time.
I want parents to know we have your backs. The onus is on the platforms to uphold their social responsibility as a social media platform and come 10 December, social media accounts held by under 16s must be deactivated, platforms must take reasonable steps to make sure they don’t get reactivated or new accounts or work arounds. Kids will find work arounds. We know they will. Platforms must take reasonable steps to try and stop that from happening.
1 Comment
How can social media sites ban Australian children under 16 years if they use a Virtual Private Network to make it appear that they come from a country that has no such ban?
A VPN is extremely easy to set up.