Australia’s attempt to protect teens blurs the line between social media and entertainment

Last November, the Australian government broke new ground when it passed a law that bans kids under 16 from accessing major social media apps. TikTok, Snapchat, X, and Meta‘s Facebook and Instagram are all targeted by the statute, which threatens offenders with fines if they fail to keep underage users off their respective platforms.

As the law begins to take shape, some Australians are asking a simple question: What about YouTube?

According to a report from Reuters, YouTube was initially included in the social media ban, but the government backed off after protests from executives and creators. YouTube’s proponents argued that it should be exempt because of the educational value it provides. A spokesperson for Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said that the decision to remove YouTube from the ban “matched broad sentiment in the Australian community that YouTube is not a core social media application.”

Academics interviewed by Reuters argued that YouTube poses plenty of danger to Australia’s youth, owing to the prepondrence of extreme and hateful content that, despite YouTube’s efforts, continues to exist on the platform. YouTube has made significant strides in the fight against violative content, but is it any less harmful than contemporaries like TikTok and Instagram?

The answer to that question requires a clear understanding of what does and doesn’t qualify as a social media app. The search for the line between social media and entertainment has erupted into a fierce debate; in 2022, TikTok exec Khartoon Weiss argued that the popular app is akin to an entertainment hub, not a social media service.

The new Australian law shows why Weiss was eager to make that distinction. In a world where social media giants face extensive regulations that aren’t being applied to entertainment companies, entities like TikTok are incentivized to muddle any attempt at classification.

The Australian law won’t go into effect for a year, but it is currently in a trial phase that will determine the enforcement mechanisms that will be used. This pre-enforcement period is the perfect time to determine what actually defines the category of a social media app. It’s an overdue conversation that could pose a challenge to YouTube — especially considering the platform’s impact on youth culture.