YouTube says ‘logged-out’ use among kids would override guardrails
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The news: YouTube has argued that including it in the social media ban would “deprive” children of an age-appropriate experience of the platform.
The context: The Google-owned video platform released a statement late Thursday after the eSafety Commissioner issued a release “correcting mistaken claims” about advice it had provided to the Communications Minister regarding Labor’s social media age restrictions earlier this month.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said her advice, which urged Labor to dispense with plans to exempt YouTube from its plans to ban under-16s from social media, would not impact access to educational content on the platform in a “logged-out state”.
YouTube argues that it is not a social media platform. Inman Grant said YouTube currently employs many of the same features associated with the harms the legislation seeks to address.
Rachel Lord, senior manager of public policy and government relations at YouTube Australia, said in response that preventing children from logging in to the platform would deprive them of safety guardrails.
What they said: “The eSafety Commissioner’s advice for younger people to use YouTube in a 'logged out; state deprives them of the age-appropriate experiences and additional safety guardrails we specifically designed for younger people," Lord said in a statement.
“YouTube is not a social media platform; it is a video streaming platform with a library of free, high-quality content.
"eSafety’s advice to include YouTube in the social media ban is in direct contradiction to the Government’s own commitment, its own research on community sentiment, independent research, and the view of Australian parents, teachers and other key stakeholders in this debate," she said
The sources: YouTube statement, eSafety Commissioner statement
