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The Australian government has announced a new legislation that will prohibit children under the age of 16 from creating or accessing YouTube accounts. This decision reverses a previous exemption for YouTube in the country's broader social media restrictions aimed at protecting young users. The ban is set to take effect starting December 2025 and follows findings from an independent investigation highlighting harmful content frequently encountered by teenagers on the platform. The move is part of Australia's pioneering efforts to regulate social media use among minors, making it the first country to impose such comprehensive restrictions. The policy has sparked debate, with some voices urging a focus on improving safety measures on YouTube rather than outright bans, emphasizing the need to balance protection with allowing digital independence for youth.
"If you want kids to get off their phones, you've got to open the door." Our latest survey, in @TheAtlantic, makes the case that to roll back the phone-based childhood, we need to give kids independence. The kids themselves say so: https://t.co/wjrKLUd7BC
Australia must focus on making YouTube safer for teens, writes @cathythorbecke, rather than blocking the next Troye Sivan https://t.co/yRXD9GlnPI
Australia must focus on making YouTube safer for teens, writes @cathythorbecke, rather than blocking the next Troye Sivan (via @opinion) https://t.co/ArSlUpsrgY
