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YouTube capitulates to Australia’s age rule, becomes last major platform to accept
Despite agreeing to comply, YouTube maintains that it is still ‘fundamentally different’ from other social media services
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Google’s YouTube said it would obey Australia’s world-leading ban on social media accounts for children under 16, a capitulation which means all the most popular platforms with young users have agreed to comply after campaigning against the law.
Google initially received an exemption on grounds its main purpose was video viewing and education, not social networking. Canberra later broadened the scope of the ban to include it following complaints by other platforms.
“We will comply with the law and implement age restrictions as required,” YouTube said in a blog post on Wednesday, a week before the law takes effect on December 10.
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However, it added that it continued to disagree with the decision to classify YouTube as a social media service, saying it was “fundamentally different”.
The Australian ban is being closely watched by other jurisdictions considering similar age-based measures, setting up a potential global precedent for how the mostly US tech giants behind the biggest platforms balance child safety with access to digital services.
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The Australian government says the measure responds to mounting evidence that platforms are failing to do enough to protect children from harmful content.
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