Google slams Australia banning under-16s’ YouTube accounts – Information Age | ACS

Google has strongly criticised Australia’s impending ban of under-16s holding social media accounts after its popular video streaming platform YouTube was added to the ban following a federal government backflip. YouTube was expected to be exempt from the nation’s social media age ban, set to begin on 10 December, after the legislation was first introduced by the Albanese government in November 2024. The Commonwealth reversed its planned YouTube exception in July after competitors such as Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat complained to the government and Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant pushed for YouTube to be included in the ban. Rachel Lord, the senior manager of public policy at Google and YouTube Australia, told a Senate committee on Monday that the government’s plan to ban social media accounts for under-16s “may be well-intentioned, but in practice risks unintended consequences”. “The legislation will not only be extremely difficult to enforce, it also does not fulfill its promise of making kids safer online,” she said. “… This law fundamentally misunderstands what YouTube is — it a video streaming platform that Australians use as a content library and learning resource — it is not social media.” Lord argued under-16s who were forced to use
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