\n<\/p>\n
YouTube will comply with the federal government\u2019s under-16s social media ban, but its parent company Google has warned the laws \u201cwon\u2019t keep teens safer online\u201d and \u201cfundamentally misunderstands\u201d how children use the internet.<\/p>\n
But the communications minister, Anika Wells, said YouTube had a responsibility to keep its platform safe, calling its warnings \u201coutright weird\u201d.<\/p>\n
Guardian Australia can also reveal that Lemon8, a newer social media app that has experienced a surge in interest recently because it is not included in the ban, will restrict its users to over-16s from next week. The eSafety Commissioner had previously warned it was closely monitoring the app for possible inclusion in the ban.<\/p>\n
Ahead of Wells\u2019 address to the National Press Club on Wednesday, Google said it will begin signing out underage users from its platform from 10 December, but warned it would mean children and their parents would lose access to safety features.<\/p>\n
Google had strongly opposed YouTube\u2019s inclusion in the ban, after initially being exempted from the framework. Google had raised prospects of a legal challenge to the ban, but Wednesday\u2019s statement did not elaborate on that potential, and Google sources declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Rachel Lord, Google\u2019s senior manager for public policy in Australia, said in a blog post that users under 16s will still be able to watch YouTube videos in a signed-out state, but that children would lose access to \u201cfeatures that only work when you are signed into an account, including subscriptions, playlists and likes, and default wellbeing settings such as \u201cTake a Break\u201d and Bedtime Reminders\u201d.<\/p>\n
She also warned that parents \u201cwill lose the ability to supervise their teen or tween\u2019s account on YouTube\u201d, such as content settings blocking specific channels.<\/p>\n
Lord wrote: \u201cThis rushed regulation misunderstands our platform and the way young Australians use it. Most importantly, this law will not fulfill its promise to make kids safer online, and will, in fact, make Australian kids less safe on YouTube.\u201d<\/p>\n
While not flagging any legal options, Lord added: \u201cWe are committed to finding a better path forward to keep kids safe online.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to the National Press Club, Wells said parents could set up control and safety settings on YouTube Kids, a separate platform not included in the ban.<\/p>\n
\u201cI find it outright weird that YouTube is always at pains to remind us all how unsafe their platform is in a logged-out state. If YouTube is reminding us all that it is not safe and there\u2019s content not appropriate for age-restricted users on their website, that\u2019s a problem that YouTube needs to fix,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Anika Wells speaks at the National Press Club on Wednesday.<\/span> Photograph: Mick Tsikas\/AAP<\/p>\n But Wells also conceded the government\u2019s plans to bar under-16s from social media might take \u201cdays or even weeks\u201d to properly take effect.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know it won\u2019t be perfect from day one but we won\u2019t give up \u2013 and we won\u2019t let the platforms off the hook,\u201d Wells said.<\/p>\n Wells praised the advocacy of families of children who had ended their lives after online bullying and mental health issues, saying the changes would \u201cprotect generation Alpha from being sucked into purgatory by the predatory algorithms.\u201d She claimed social media platforms deliberately targeted teenagers to maximise engagement and profits.<\/p>\n \u201cThese companies wield an incredible power we willingly hand over to them because of the benefits the platform bring to us. From 10 December, we start to take that power back for young Australians,\u201d Wells said.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/p>\n Meta has told users of Facebook, Instagram and Threads what to expect from next week, as has Snapchat. A Reddit spokesperson said the company had no updates to share when contacted by Guardian Australia on Tuesday, while X, TikTok, YouTube and Kick have also not publicly confirmed how they will comply with the legislation and did not respond to questions.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/span><\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Platforms not taking steps to remove users under the age of 16 risk fines of up to $50m. The Coalition has raised concerns about the timing and implementation of the ban, questioning how the age-verification systems will operate, and there is at least one legal challenge under way.<\/p>\n The government has said sending a signal to parents and children about not accessing social media is worthwhile, even if some children slip through the net.<\/p>\n Wells said it will take some time before tech companies are threatened with the $50m fines, explaining that the eSafety Commissioner will seek information from the platforms on 11 December about their efforts to purge underage users. It will then seek data monthly.<\/p>\n In a press conference in Adelaide on Tuesday, Wells foreshadowed more platforms being added to the under-16s ban if children migrated to sites not currently listed.<\/p>\n She told media to \u201cstay tuned\u201d for news about Lemon8, an Instagram-style app not included in the ban. Guardian Australia understands the eSafety Commission has written to Lemon8 \u2013 owned by TikTok\u2019s parent company, ByteDance \u2013 to say the agency would monitor the platform for possible inclusion after the scheme begins.<\/p>\n Guardian Australia can reveal Lemon8 has decided to restrict its users to those aged over 16 from 10 December.<\/p>\n \u201cIf everybody ends up on LinkedIn, and LinkedIn becomes a place where there is online bullying, algorithms targeting 13-to-16-year-olds in a way that\u2019s deteriorating their mental and physical health, then we will go after LinkedIn,\u201d Wells said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why all platforms are on notice. We have to be agile and dynamic.\u201d<\/p>\n In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" YouTube will comply with the federal government\u2019s under-16s social media ban, but its parent company Google has warned the laws \u201cwon\u2019t keep teens safer online\u201d and \u201cfundamentally misunderstands\u201d how children use the internet. But the communications minister, Anika Wells, said YouTube had a responsibility to keep its platform safe, calling its warnings \u201coutright weird\u201d. Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[3874,2029,163,11095,20130,205,7854,204,7028,1265],"class_list":{"0":"post-35844","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-access","9":"tag-australias","10":"tag-ban","11":"tag-comply","12":"tag-lemon8","13":"tag-media","14":"tag-restrict","15":"tag-social","16":"tag-under16s","17":"tag-youtube"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}