Public sentiment is predominantly negative towards the Australian government's ban on YouTube accounts for children under 16, with many viewing it as an infringement on parental rights and personal freedoms. There is widespread concern over government overreach and skepticism about the effectiveness of such a ban in genuinely protecting children. While some support the ban for mental health reasons, the majority argue that it undermines parental responsibility and the educational value of YouTube.

Australian Government

Parents

YouTube

The fact that they're allowing YouTube kids shows that they have done absolutely no research into this. I discovered the hard way that youtube kids is filled with trash not suitable for kids. Anyone remember Elsa Gate?

fruity_tingle

Next week, data leaks, how did we let this happen?

bunduz

JPoogle

Albo is seriously going to the UN and trying to"push world leaders to protect children online". What a joke.

The UK's rollout of the policy has been awful but at least their largely focusing on themselves meanwhile Albo here is trying to convince the rest of the world to adopt the policy, absolutely stupid and certainly dystopian. I really hope most of the world just ignores whatever Albo says.

Remember, it was never about protecting the kids, its about trying to exert more control over the internet and acting as the 'internet police' determinign what people can and can't do online.

TheHoovyPrince

What ever happened to privacy and personal freedoms?

targ_

Australia becoming an absolute joke with such movements/bans, even asking Signal for a backdoor so they can provide data to the Australian Government should be eye opening to all and a constant reminder that they don't care about our privacy.

Helftheuvel

Youtube kids has some of the most deranged content on it this doesn't make much sense

Open_Ad6297

Using children as an excuse to restrict the public is a classic gambit but as a parent, fuck that. If my kid’s on YouTube without supervision, that’s my fault and my problem. It shouldn’t fall to everyone else to be their parent.

Goonerrhys96

"I'm altering the deal, pray I don't alter it further".

RaeseneAndu

*massive data breach happens, identify theft everywhere* 

"How could we let this happen?"

_Saikai_

OKOK-01

The problem is not fixed by making the user "resgister". This issue is fixed by makin gthe CORPORATIONS RESPONSIBLE!

The same way we expect the ABC/7/ newspapers/ radio stations to research and back up their "facts" we shoul;d pressure facebook et al.. to take responsibility for their "information"

Kulbardee

Still wondering why the world considers Australia a nanny-state?   
It wasn't good enough to be laughed at for banning games, now we're trying to 1984 the entire internet?

wildstyle96

This has absolutely nothing to do with the safety of kids or anyone else. It's all about control. Absolutely dystopian!

thejoshimitsu

Well, this will keep escalating no matter what political party is in power. Digital privacy will keep getting eroded so long as we are in the [Five Eyes Alliance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes), which is why the article is pointing to the US (our surveillance ally).

This has been on the table for decades, but it was too impractical to implement until other countries started doing it (UK, US etc)

I can see the logic behind protecting kids, but the government shouldn't be able to say who can go on what website. It's a slippery slope that will only keep going as surveillance is too juicy for our government to not pursue, especially when we are a partner with the NSA and other surveillance government bodies.

Anyway, privacy will always be sacrificed for "our safety", as we saw with the global reaction post-9/11.

There are web scripts to get around age blockers on YouTube (Tampermonkey), but I can see governments requiring ID to even connect to the internet in the future.

spaghettibolegdeh

I swear this entire thing is a ploy to make vpn companies richer

Az_30

As much as I hate seeing the ALP doing this, I know that the LNP would have done exactly the same thing.

MontasJinx

How would this affect embedded videos on other websites?

kyubeyt

They really should have just banned YouTube shorts.

rylo151

This whole thing is such a joke and speaks so much about how little the government still understands about the internet and technology.

pixelbenderr

FFS Australia is tedious and irritating. Going to the UN ffs. How cringey for a PM. There are far bigger issues to be on about. What a bloody pathetic nanny state these days. Sadder thing is Aussies have no go any more and will just go along with it like a nice little nation of sheep.

No-Cryptographer9408

I’m over 30. I have over 10 different social media platforms. If I need to give over my government id that’s 10 sites that can be hacked and create a headache from leaked details. I’m not stupid enough to give 10 different companies my government id. So what I have to be punished because I’m not stupid enough to hand over official documentation? And if this is about the kids why are porn websites not better regulated? I know of one at the minimum that doesn’t even ask to verify your ages. I’m very pissed off.

jaffamental

So where’s the protesting? Everyone seems to agree that this is wrong, and have incredibly valid reasons. But nobody seems to want to actually take action against it. Surely someone here has the connections to rally a protest

Miss-you-SJ

This whole thing is so bizarre and incredibly suspicious. 

Seriously, a 15 year old can't use YouTube? What is happening?

Tangybrowwncidertown

Yes, I would love to:

1. Give my government IDs to big media
2. Have even more cross-site scripting and cookies
3. Allow government and big data to increase their digital profiling of me.

Said no one ever.

unixdude1

This is straight up bad policy. Banning a few select social media will just result in children using something else. Apps like Snapchat and YouTube are ingrained in youth culture at this point, and the alternatives they will inevitably find will be less regulated and have more harmful (potentially even actually dangerous like pornography) content than the current ones, that will make YouTube look like ABC3 in comparison. 

There's still little/no detail how the ban would actually work, and now these companies will have our government IDs, which is just great considering their track record of selling data to shady data brokers. There will be an increase in scams, identity fraud, and targeted as campaigns undermining our democracy.

ChazzLord_2727

ctwe342

*sigh* this is going to create such a nuisance in schools. Technically all of the software in schools (compass, Microsoft teams, Google classroom) would be classified as social media. And YouTube is a common resource, showing students a video to complement what they’re learning is quite standard. 

And all the teens will be circumventing it regardless 🙄

Mabel_Waddles_BFF

[deleted]

It would be interesting to know how many politicians and modern business leaders snuck into MA rated movies as kids, wouldn't it?

The real issue lies with education to be completely honest, and providing more realistic role models for kids. 

But to admit it would require a complete overhaul of the educational systems to focus more on life skills than academics.

Surv1v3dTh3F1r3Dr1ll

This country makes me feel like I need to go full schizo with my opsec. Only use TOR with throwaway emails and pass my words through machine translation 1 or 2 or 12 times before ever saying anything on the internet

Catboyhotline

I’m either way on the issue, but it strikes me as odd that if you’re going to age restrict that you’d exempt YouTube kids.

If you’ve ever watched YouTube Kids, I’d suggest it’s probably just as damaging/addictive and “adult” YouTube.

Full of brain rot, optimised digital pacifier content.

Sure you could argue there are aspects that are educational (as with almost any platform), however when the algorithm is tuned to viewer retention the benefits tend to fade away.

ohmygodlookout

Don't you just tick a box to make your video upload to the kids section? What's stopping Andrew Tate from ticking the box?

Falafels

Asleep-Pressure-7180

Remember Conroy internet filter? It's back in fuck everyone form

TheBestEndOfTheDay

It's got nothing to do with "protecting" kids, the government wants digital ID for everyone over 16

baldersz

Posting for information, but Collective Shout are the ones pushing this BS, and they should be exposed.

pikkaachu

Next week....

Government: What is this VPN thing?

TildaTinker

# Australia to take teen social media ban plan global, despite Wiggles’ complaints

***Australia will take its social media ban to New York to push world leaders to protect children online despite the Trump administration’s defence of US tech companies and attacks on digital censorship.***

***Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed on Wednesday he would hold an event in New York in September to coincide with a United Nations meeting***, after the government defied threats from YouTube’s parent company to sue if the site was included in the ban. after the government defied threats from YouTube’s parent company to sue if the site was included in the ban.

“I want everyone to get on board because this is not an ideological issue, this is an issue about looking after young people,” he said.

“The media bargaining code has come up in discussions with the United States. This issue has not been raised by them, but I have certainly asserted Australia’s position because we are not doing this slowly, or discreetly, we are doing this in a transparent way.”

Trump issued an executive order in January attacking social media platforms efforts to fact-check and moderate content on their websites. “Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society,” the order reads.

His administration has also taken with Australian government laws requiring social media sites to pay for news content from local publishers.

On Sunday, Albanese dismissed Google’s legal threat to Wells, telling ABC *Insiders* the minister would [make assessments independent of threats](https://www.theage.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5mi48) made by social media companies.

“I say to them that social media has a social responsibility. There is no doubt that young people are being impacted adversely in their mental health by some of the engagement with social media and that is why the government has acted,” he said.

The ban passed as law in November last year, requiring tech platforms to take reasonable steps to ensure children under 16 are not using their services. YouTube received an exemption at the time after former communications minister Michelle Rowland deemed it had significant educational purposes.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant delivered formal advice to Wells in June [recommending YouTube be removed from the carve out](https://www.theage.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5m9mf) because research showed four in 10 young teenagers had been exposed to harmful content on the platform.

Wells has since accepted Inman-Grant’s advice, saying in a statement kids would be given a reprieve from the “persuasive and pervasive pull of social media”.

“We want kids to know who they are before platforms assume who they are,” she said.

YouTube Kids, which offers a restricted version of the video service with clips that are appropriate for young users, is not caught by the ban because children cannot upload videos or comment on videos among other safety restrictions. That could provide a path for other platforms to create restricted versions of their services and get similar treatment.

Under the law, platforms will face fines of up to almost $50 million for failing to take reasonable steps to prevent underage account holders from using their services.

_KarlHungus

So, from what I understand, the kids aren't going to be punished for making accounts, but the sites will.

If anyone here has a tech-savvy child who can figure out how to get around the ban, get them to go ahead and tell all their friends how to do it. And spread that shit like wildfire. I'm curious to see what will happen.

I_Am_The_Bookwyrm

This seems ridiculous and I still won't believe it til it happens but so much of YouTube is repetitive brain rot that I'm expected to show ID to prove I'm double the voting drinking age then I'm done.

jaylicknoworries

Ariliescbk

People are apathetic fucking Morons that's how this happen .

Right-Eye8396

Next step is shutting down churches and childcare centres to protect the kids....

blinkomatic

My eldest was watching YT Kids the other day, a video about Cities Skylines. Looked over their shoulder and the guy on the video is making roads in the shapes of dicks and boobs.

This ban won't work - everyone will find ways around it, me included. I don't need to, but I'm not giving my details (and browsing history) to these organisations - our VPN is going to get a lot more use.

PloppyTheSpaceship

I thought this was all about stopping children bullying each other?  When did it become censorship?

Outside-Car1988

Meanwhile discord servers ..... Untouched.

It's not about protecting children.

Flyerone

I won’t be banning my kids from YouTube. Happy to open an account for them. This is as dumb as blocking websites that you can access with a vpn

metamorphyk

Suitable-Squash9524

While we all complain and kick up a stink in this little echo chamber (rightfully so). Can anyone share any where we can do a petition, send a letter and actually commit to action on this? It's easier to sit and complain but I want to try to stop this from happening with whatever means I can using our democratic voices and I've yet to see someone share how.

Is there a petition set up?

Is there a website set up showing what actions we can take to stop this?

I don't wanna sit down on this one.

nadsticles1

I don't think there's any kind of complicated conspiracy here. Labor is simply trying to win over voters. In another thread, someone asked "well why don't they ban gambling advertising instead, wouldn't that win voter support". Perhaps, but the gambling industry seems to have immense clout when it comes to resisting any attempt to regulate it. 

Meanwhile, the social media companies seem to have very little influence with the government. Plus, they apparently have a powerful enemy in the form of Murdoch media.

Cristoff13

I think albolognese needs to learn what the fuck hes doing before he makes rules the dumb fucka (i would have said c*nt but i got banned 3 times for it on stupid american subreddits)
(Sorry if that offends anyone)
(Deal with it)

NotSkittles5236

xzeus1

Such a joke. Believe it or not, kids can get educational content from YouTube....it's not aĺl available on YouTube Kids either. Luckily all the YouTube accounts my kids watch are under my details, so they'll be able to continue watching.

newYearnew2025

The argument that this should or shouldn't be implemented is over. It is being implemented. Much to everyone here's disappointment. Frankly, I do think action needs to be taken to get kids off social media. I understand that is a point of view that will get me downvoted, and that's ok. 

Now in terms of verifying the age. That is something that is dangerous. I do not like the idea of submitting ID documents to each and every social media platform so that *they* then have my ID documents on their servers hoping that they protect that information, which we all know they wont. 

Instead, I would like to see a system similar to the open banking access platform. With open banking, I agree that this platform should see certain information, and that platform does not need my bank login details. It is read only access. Really good for budgeting platforms, which is what I use open banking for. How would that work for ID verification? A good system I think would be to use an existing agency (myGov) where the government knows our age (generally due to having to create a myGov in order to use the ATO website to submit tax returns, but also medicare, etc). myGov would create a read only token. This token should not have any identifying information in it, rather it merely says something like "yes, this person is of age". When logging into a social media website for the first time, the website asks for the read only key. You click the button, it takes you to myGov, asks myGov the question, myGov sends the response, hey presto no information is shared, and everyone is happy. That's a good way to do it. But will it be done like that? Nup. Probably not.

whiely

Will I be able to get around this with a VPN? Or am I just deleting social media?

Icy-Caterpillar-3787

cowpong

How long until people start making large federated VPNs hosting their own social medias like Lemmy or Mastodon?

Kriztov

Ughhhhhhh working in school IT is gonna be fucking fun..

Having said that, excluding the large number of VPN users, our Internet usage should drastically reduce.

CumbersomeNugget

Think about the possibilities this will bring, Google, Meta and others will have your exact age along with a host of other personal information, the targeted advertisements are going to be glorious. /s

moonorplanet

So long as these sorts of bans involve infringing the privacy of everyone else on the internet, they shouldn't be allowed.

Hanhula

I just wish I invested in vpn companies earlier

Mittykent121

So hang on does that mean that a child trying to learn something for school can't use youtube because of nanny state censorship?

Practical_County_501

“this is an issue about looking after young people” says Albo, whilst bowing his head to a pedophile and and letting American beef into Australia, jeopardising the economy and livelihood of our country?

JustBusyDead

Side bar, but if we’re banning social media for under 16s, shouldn’t that apply to the featuring of children on social media, too?

IllustriousClock767

How on earth is the government going to enforce this? They're not banning kids from using the internet. They're making everyone else prove who they are to use the internet.

xGoatku

Well, my Google account was created 21 years ago, so I swear to god if I have to “verify my age” I’m going to be spitting chips, and then hop on a VPN.

perthguppy

Well, Google has threatened to take it to court, so I guess that's the next step.  It would be funny if the court side with Google.  There would be nothing more hilarious than this whole disaster being found to be completely unlawful.  All the campaigning and pearl clutching coming undone simply because nobody actually checked to see if it worked on constitutional grounds. But, perhaps that is the exact humiliation Australian politicians needs to suffer through in this instance.  Maybe then they can actually look at doing something that works practically, like educating parents on how their phones, tablets and computers actually function.

greatmodernmyths

When they do things like this I lose respect for them because it shows we have such clueless people with so much power. Kids will be able to watch YouTube without an account. 

That means they will have access to much more content than they do with YouTube kids or with an account, because they won’t get their preference algorithms anymore.

 I think this is to get kids to watch mainstream tv rather than protecting them from inappropriate content. I’d rather my kid be watching Scishow Kids etc or travel docos on YouTube - things that feed their intellectual curiosity - than shitty commercial tv  which is full of age inappropriate harmful rubbish.

The other thing is that google accounts are completely ingrained in the education system in Australia- every students email is gmail connected to the department of ed and google classroom. Good luck separating that and not causing chaos. 

Octosurfer99

I'll assume they've not considered Education with this decision, if they have I'll be surprised.  
Youtube has a mode called restricted mode, but if a channel or video is blocked but the material is educationally relevent, the teacher can approve the video for access by students.  
However restricted mode exclusions only works if the student logs in with their school account, so unless an exception is granted for that its going to really disrupt lesson plans, plenty of education content gets flagged for restricted mode that is still educationally relevent  
When using a school account iirc all the social media type features of youtube are not available, so in theory could be permitted but I've not heard if that'll happen  
So what will schools do now? Likely use other video service that don't have such restriction control available on them, meaning students are more at risk of being exposed to harmful content, typical ill planned crap

tmh1984au

I like how the absolute dumbest computer illiterate people are in charge of making these decisions

What an absolute joke. I can't wait for everybody who can't even log into Netflix without a younger persons help can't figure out how to verify their ages. That's the point I can see backlash as most think it somehow magically blocks under 16s only

Specific-Barracuda75

this whole venture is such an unbelievable waste of time and money it baffles the mind

glloryana

John__Spartan

Well that's YouTube gone from any workplace that don't allow Google logins. 

And it's just sad to see every country tumble down this road. UK first, we're next, EU is doing it soon and USA states already have this in some places.

They still haven't fucking figured out how this will be done since the legislation specifically said no government ID. The UK went down the privacy nightmare route of using the usual ID check like for banks but it's not allowed here. 

It's so poorly thought out.

ghoonrhed

Doing this in 2025 is some backward mental gymnastics

MrSweetpotato93

It took 12 hours for the UK government to start censoring protests against the government using their online safety bill.


Be afraid, be very afraid.

Acemanau

I wouldn’t have turned into an intellectually curious adult if it wasn’t from discovering niche videos and channels when I was a teenager. What boomers are writing these laws and whose consulting them lol 

ConsequenceLimp9717

God at this point i wonder if they are going to try to get ID checks added into any videogame that has a chat function :x

Ryulightorb

As a parent this whole thing disgusts me. Leave the parenting to the parents. Massive overstep by the government in my opinion.

bigaussiecheese

SweetRoll789

They let the cat out of the bag with this bill and what they really wanted from it - censorship of the internet by proxy, led by the esafety commissioner, it must be fought until it is gone and an acceptable form of protection is established.

Vivid-Fondant6513

What happens if Google &amp; Meta just withdraw their services? They just say "this is unworkable &amp; we'll be turning off our services in Australia in one week."

I think the government would back down really fast because to most Australians Google &amp; Meta are the internet. It would be a kill switch for so many companies &amp; individuals. Especially if Google removed the whole Google suite. That would cause chaos.

northofreality197

So good thing the UK has already gone down this route so we can use their workarounds.

And of course the teens were the ones to immediately work this out. 

The most frustrating thing is we know what needs to be done and instead governments are doing this knee jerk bullshit. 

1) Programs to teach internet literacy like in Iceland where it’s both in school and rolled out to the general public. 
2) Laws around the algorithm and the kind of content it can show to teens like they have in New York. 

But most governments don’t want people to have greater internet literacy and critical thinking skills because then they’ll start questioning the bullshit spat out by politicians. And, well, we can’t have that 🙄

Wierd how every western government is implementing/trying to implement these rules all at the same time

Important-Block-6724

So this means we’ll be banning influencers from using their children as $$$-makers, without any kind of real, informed consent, right? Right?! 

But no, kids can continue to be exploited for views and likes and dollars while we will have to show our ID to view instructional videos on YouTube…

I know how toxic social media algorithms can be, and how they’re literally designed to keep a developing brain scrolling and engaging, but ultimately I think regulation of it needs to lie with parents, not putting this blanket ban on it with the accompanying age-verification process that puts our sensitive information at risk. Because, we also have terrible data protection laws…and before anyone argues that our data is already out there - it’s all about reducing the risk surface area and we should not be forced to increase this risk for reasons that are not entirely necessary.

G_Fring_Lives

Snitzel20701

Fucking pricks. Everything they said about this law pre-election turned out to be bullshit. I'm tired of being gaslit by this government. There's no sense of urgency for anything with public demand and easy wins like gambling ad ban are completely taken off the table but when it comes control they'll ram it through on a Friday afternoon with the LNPs blessing and then go back on their word after that. Does the Labor government  think their numbers are that good that they can't lose election? Because I'd like to point them to Campbell Newman's government that lasted a single term against an opposition of 8.

saunderez

Absolutely ridiculous. There's so much valuable educational content on YouTube that kids can use to help them learn.

tibbycat

i learnt both guitar &amp; piano on YouTube when I was 10 years old 😓 feel sorry for these kids

Careless_Culture9680

Hectic_Habibs_Commo

When our E safety Commissioner worked under a Republican governor who made that botched "anti trafficking legislation" so crap it made it on John Oliver is now doing the same thing here except for social media. Lovely....

galemaniac

To me, social media is where you connect with people you know in real life. It’s your social network, but online. I don’t consider YouTube social media (or Reddit for that matter). It’s just a video website. And Reddit is just a forum. Blogs weren’t considered social media just because they had a comment section down the bottom.

Only the Australian government would see the shitshow the British just started with this policy and decide to double down

BetaThetaOmega

The internet has kept me from going over the edge. I have autism and I don’t really have any irl friends. By connecting with people on the internet it’s given me some sort of social connection and without I don’t know where I’d be now. I’m not alone in this either. There are people out there who are suffering and are receiving support through the internet because they have nobody irl. Fuck this all. To anyone who commits suicide because of this, and I’m sure there will be people who do, the blood will be on the government’s hands.

Triforce805

So it can still be accessed, just no account...

obsolescent_times

Maybe I’m dumb, but how the fuck is this just happening without citizens explicitly voting for/against it. We need an easier avenue to hold referendums so these bullshit governmental ideas can be shut the fuck down when the politicians first squeak them, the fucking rats. These cunts are supposed to work for us.

barneyaffleck

Won't someone think of the children! *clutches pearls boomerishly*

ricksure76

Hang on, so kids can't access educational content, yet they can access hardcore porn?

alixsyd

TROJAN HORSE you fools.
Good luck with your digital ID mandate now

Australia announces a ban on children under 16 from having YouTube accounts to protect them from harmful content.

Australia YouTube Ban for Children

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