Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has made several recommendations to the Minister for Communications, Anika Wells, regarding the draft rules that will guide the upcoming ban on social media for kids under 16.
Those rules are required to be formalised ahead of the ban’s introduction at the end of this year, primarily so that the platforms themselves can gear up for the changes, along with the parents and kids who will be impacted.
Less than two weeks ago, the Minister responsible wrote to the eSafety Commissioner seeking advice on the drafter’s rules.
Seven days later, the eSafety Commissioner responded with five rather comprehensive options.
The most dramatic of the options was the recommendation that “YouTube is removed from the draft rules”.
Currently, YouTube is called out as an exemption in the rules, something the previous Minister defended, but there’s been no clear justification for the exemption.
eSafety says: “While YouTube has many educational and otherwise beneficial uses, eSafety is concerned that the popular use of YouTube among children, coupled with reports of exposure to harmful content and the platform’s use of certain features and functionality, is not consistent with the purpose of the SMMA (Social Media Minimum Age) obligation to reduce the risk of harm.”
“Results from eSafety’s recent Youth Survey indicated YouTube was the most popular social media platform children had ever used, with 76 per cent of 10 to 15-year-olds having used YouTube, making it significantly more popular than other social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, especially among the 10 to 12-year-old cohort.”
“The recommendations point out that YouTube has similar features to other platforms which are set to be banned.”
“YouTube currently employs persuasive design features and functionality that may be associated with harms to health, including those which may contribute to unwanted or excessive use (such as infinite scroll, auto-play, qualitative social metrics, and tailored and algorithmically recommended content feeds).”
“Separately and combined, these features may encourage excessive consumption without breaks and amplify exposure to harmful content.”
In addition to calling out the YouTube exemption, the eSafety Commissioner suggests adding an explanatory statement to the rules to outline the Government’s intentions, and amending the rules to look at the purpose of the social media service as well as the risk of harm it poses.
The Minister for Communications will now consider these recommendations, before tabling the Rules in Parliament.
