Under the Social Media Minimum Age Legislation, before making legislative rules, there is a requirement that the Minister for Communications request independent advice from the eSafety Commissioner. The Minister made that request on 12 June, and the eSafety Commissioner provided her advice on 19 June.
On 23 June, the Minister for Communications Anika Wells published the advice, which recommends YouTube not be excluded.
If the Minister chooses to accept the eSafety Commissioner’s advice, YouTube will be treated like any other platform under the legislation, the purpose of which is to prevent children under 16 from having accounts on certain social media platforms.
YouTube currently employs many of the same features and functionality associated with the harms that the legislation is seeking to address. These include features such as autoplay, endless content and algorithmically recommended content. These features along with shortform video content may encourage excessive consumption without breaks and amplify exposure to harmful content.
However, adoption of eSafety’s advice would not mean that children are no longer be able to access educational content on YouTube.
The new law will only restrict children under the age of 16 from having their own accounts – not accessing content on YouTube or any other service through links from the school or in a ‘logged-out’ state.
There is nothing in the legislation that prevents educators with their own accounts from continuing to incorporate school-approved educational content on YouTube or any other service just as they do now.
eSafety’s advice recommended that no single platform or service – whether YouTube or any other service – be specifically excluded under the Rules. This is due to the fast-evolving nature of online platforms and the fact their risk profile may quickly change.
Instead, eSafety’s advice supported the approach taken across the other draft Rules – that classes of services which meet certain criteria should be excluded.
To reiterate, the law requires the Minister for Communications to seek eSafety’s independent advice before finalising her decision on the rules regarding which platforms are included or excluded from the minimum age obligation. Minister Wells will now consider eSafety’s advice as she determines what the rules will be, including whether any services or classes of services should be excluded.
eSafety will be releasing a range of resources to empower parents, carers and educators to prepare children for the changes to come.