Australia will enforce the under-16 social media ban from December 10. YouTube on Wednesday attacked the decision of Australia saying that the decision and law is made in haste stating that this will make children less safe online.
The social media ban on under-16s in Australia has grappled the news headlines following massive protests. YouTube on Wednesday attacked the decision of Australia saying that the decision and law is made in haste stating that this will make children less safe online.
Australia will enforce the ban on December 10 from the world’s most popular social media platforms and websites, including Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Instagram.
“This law will not fulfil its promise to make kids safer online, and will, in fact, make Australian kids less safe on YouTube. We’ve heard from parents and educators who share these concerns” the company’s public policy manager Rachel Lord said in a statement, as quoted by AFP.
YouTube ban
Video streaming platform YouTube, which has been one of the most visited sites, was originally slated to escape the ban so children could regularly watch the educational videos.
But Australia did not agree to this decision and changed its stance in July, saying young users needed to be shielded from “predatory algorithms”.
YouTube agreed to the decision and said all Australian users under 16 would be automatically signed out on December 10, using the ages linked to their Google accounts.
Lord said the “rushed regulation misunderstands our platform and the way young Australians use it”.
“At YouTube, we believe in protecting kids in the digital world, not from the digital world.”
Archive accounts
YouTube verified and assured that the data save of particular accounts would be archived and saved so that when the users come back after meeting their age limit it will be there.
“We will not delete or remove any of their existing content or data, and it will be waiting for them when they come back.”
Australian communications minister Anika Wells said, “If YouTube is reminding us all that it is not safe and there’s content not appropriate for age-restricted users on their website, that’s a problem that YouTube needs to fix.”
Will the regulations work?
There has been keen debate on whether the restriction be appropriate for the country or prove to be fruitful staying within the limits of Australians. The sweeping restrictions debate about the potential dangers of social media.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has already started deactivating accounts based on information such as the age given when they were created.
An activist organisation last week led protests across the country to stop the nationwide ban. They suggested that the ban will not help the young minds to evolve as technology is the rising development.
The Digital Freedom Project said it had challenged the laws in Australia’s High Court, arguing they were an “unfair” assault on freedom of speech.
(With inputs from AFP)
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