Australia said Wednesday that it would add YouTube to the sites covered by its first global ban on social networks for adolescents, by reversing a previous decision to exempt the video sharing site belonging to the alphabet and potentially set up a legal challenge.
The decision was made after the Internet regulator urged the government last month to overthrow Youtube sculpture, citing an investigation which revealed that 37% of minors reported harmful content on the site, the worst program for a social media platform.
“I call time on this subject,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a statement stressing that Australian children were negatively assigned by online platforms and recalling social media of their social responsibility.
“I want Australian parents to know that we have their backs.”
The decision expands the ban established to take effect in December. YouTube says that it is used by almost three -quarters of Australians aged 13 to 15 and should not be classified as social media because its main activity is to host videos.
“Our position remains clear: YouTube is a video sharing platform with a free and high quality content library, more and more consulted on television screens. It is not social media,” said a spokesperson by Youtube by email.
Given that the government said last year, it would be exempt from YouTube because of its popularity with teachers, the platforms covered by the ban, such as Facebook and Instagram of Meta, Snapchat Snap.n and Tiktok, complained.
They say that YouTube has key similarities with their products, in particular by allowing users to interact and recommend content via an activity -based algorithm.
The prohibition prohibited YouTube represents those under the age of 16, allowing parents and teachers to show videos on this subject to minors.
“Teachers are still conservatives of any resource for relevance (and) will be judicious,” said Angela Falkenberg, president of Australian Primary Primary Association, who supports the prohibition.
Artificial intelligence has supervised the propagation of disinformation on social media platforms such as YouTube, said Adam Marre, director of information security of the Cybersecurity Society Arctic Wolf.
“The Australian government’s decision to regulate YouTube is an important step in repelling the uncontrolled power of Big Tech and protecting children,” he added in an email.
The overthrow sets up a new dispute with alphabet, which threatened to withdraw Google services from Australia in 2021 to prevent a law forced it to pay media for content research.
Last week, Youtube told Reuters that he had written to the urgent government “to maintain the integrity of the legislative process”. The Australian media said that YouTube had threatened a legal challenge, but YouTube did not confirm it.
“I will not be intimidated by legal threats when it comes to a real struggle for the well-being of Australian children,” said Communications Minister Anika Wells on Wednesday.
The law adopted in November requires only “reasonable steps” by social media platforms to prevent Australians under the age of 16, or face a fine of up to $ 49.5 million.
The government, which is expected to receive a report this month on age verification products, said these results will influence the application of the prohibition.
