In response to mounting pressure from major tech companies, the Australian government has shifted its stance on YouTube. After previously exempting the Google-affiliated hub from its upcoming ban on teen social media accounts, Aussie officials have indicated that YouTube will be subject to the applicable restrictions.
When the law takes effect in December, it will give the Australian government the power to fine platforms that fail to prevent under-16 users from opening accounts. Those rules will be applied across major social media feeds, including TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram.
Initially, Down Under authorities offered YouTube a carveout that would prevent the law from applying to it. At the time, a spokesperson for then-Communications Minister Michelle Rowland argued that the exemption “matched broad sentiment in the Australian community that YouTube is not a core social media application.”
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That logic did not sit well with YouTube’s rivals, who argued that the exemption was nothing more than a “sweetheart deal.” In response, the Australian government resolved to reconsider the law’s scope, a move that led to a reversal of course. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured above) and current Communications Minister Anika Wells are expected to confirm the decision to include YouTube in the ban. YouTube Kids, which offers stronger safeguards than the standard version of the platform, will remain exempt.
“The Albanese government is giving kids a reprieve from the persuasive and pervasive pull of social media while giving parents peace of mind,” Wells said. “There’s a place for social media, but there’s not a place for predatory algorithms targeting children.”
YouTube may scold the Australian government for its about-face, but this decision is the latest in a series of regulatory setbacks for the Alphabet-owned hub. In the United States, regulatory pressure could lead to the breakup of Google’s ad and search businesses, and there have also been some contentious legal battles concerning the union status of contractors.
Now that Albanese and his deputies are putting the YouTube drama behind them, they must figure out how to enforce a law that could theoretically be sidestepped by something as simple as a VPN. The fines will target platforms that fail to take “reasonable steps” to prevent under-16 signups, but it’s not yet clear what those steps are. And since the ban won’t stop kids and teens from using social media while logged out, will it address the youth mental health crisis in a meaningful way?
Age verification tools employed by tech companies like YouTube and Roblox could answer some of those conundrums. At least one question has been definitively answered: According to the Australian government, YouTube is a social media platform, and the line between those apps and online video platforms is blurrier than ever before.
