New teen research backs Albanese’s Youtube exemption
New research on teenagers presented at Mumbrella’s Retail Marketing Summit on Wednesday backs the Albanese government’s decision to exempt Youtube from the looming social media ban for all Australians under 16.
Last November, the federal government passed the Online Safety Act, restricting use of Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok and other social media platforms to those over 16 years of age.
Youtube dodged the ban, with the video platform being designated as an educational tool, much to the ire of Meta and Tiktok, who slammed the government’s “closed door consultation” as a breach of earlier commitments to transparency.
Research conducted by Australian consumer insights company Nature found that Youtube is a trusted beacon among the digital channels that teenagers access. Nature was the Research Society’s organisation of the year for 2023 and 2024.
Paddy Cain
“When we look at the teenage audience, there is a lot of skepticism and a lot of negativity towards all of these different social platforms,” said Paddy Cain, a partner at Nature.
“But, Youtube is actually the exception. We found with Gen Z, that is the one that is seen more favourably, across that generation, than the likes of Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook.”
Nature’s findings are due to be released next Tuesday, March 25, in a report titled: “Navigating the digital divide: Australians speak out on the under-16 Social Media Ban”.
The study, conducted in December 2024 and January 2025, found that 61% of teens think YouTube “positively impacts society”, a sentiment mirrored by Australian adults. Just 16% of teens think it has a negative impact on wellbeing.
“Across generations, we found that Australians see YouTube as a platform for learning, creativity, and entertainment, while TikTok is associated with social media addiction and inappropriate content,” the study says.
“They see it as the antithesis to the doom scroll, with content that entertains, inspires and educates —distinct from the addictive nature of other social platforms. This suggests that keeping it accessible to young people is a sound decision.”
“Social media is absolutely addictive,” Aliya Hasan, Nature’s head of strategy, told the conference attendees.
“Yes, we know there’s a potential ban coming, but people feel differently about different channels. Younger teens are chronically addicted to online channels, but older teens are starting to see the pitfalls of it.”
Hasan said terms like ‘brain rot’ were starting to slide into common parlance for the teenager.
“Which recognises the absolute garbage that they’re consuming,” she said. This leads to disengagement with social media, which — in an increasingly digital word, actually is “breaking down the very social construct, essentially” that teenagers rely upon.
Aliya Hasan
“And teens are telling us this again in our research,” said Cain. “We see that nearly all of them are saying that they’re on social media daily, much more so than some of the traditional channels, like TV and radio. And we see more than half of them actually saying it’s easier to connect with their friends online than it is in person.”
The problem is, teenagers know this method of communication is detrimental to them.
“That all happens despite the fact that several research studies have actually asked teens — and also older people — where they get their joy, and where they get their happiness from,” Cain explains.
“It’s from physical experiences. So despite the fact that they potentially know that, and they experience that – they’re still gravitating towards online media.”
Last November, when it seemed like Youtube would be facing the same ban as the other social media platforms, Mumbrella did its own Gen Z case study, with a sample size of one.
We spoke to 17-year-old Leo Puglisi, a journalist and the founder of online news channel, 6 News Australia. He has interviewed three Prime Ministers during his career, all of which were broadcast on Youtube. He knows more than most the value of the platform.
“It’s really concerning that it’s even been considered as one of the platforms,” he told Mumbrella.
Leo Puglisi, chatting to a PM or three.
“I think most people don’t really treat it as a social media platform, like in the same way Facebook and Twitter and Instagram are.
“It is essentially the television for young people, at this point.”
Youtube is the largest video and audio distribution system in the world. Which is how it is used by teenagers.
Puglisi joked “unless you’ve got a year-long comment section thread going – you’re not texting each other via Youtube. People don’t treat it in the same way.
“It’s really not a social media network in the same way, and it’d be absurd to have it under this ban.”
The organisers of 36 Months, the body that drove most of the public sentiment around the social media ban, also agreed that Youtube should not be banned.
“Using YouTube for entertainment and educational purposes I think is fair enough,” campaign director, Greg Atwells, told the ABC last year.
“It’s where people pretty much learn how to do things. I learnt to change the oil in my car.”
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So half of teens think there’s inappropriate content on YouTube and that’s a win?
Come on! The stats in this article show that 51% of content is inappropriate, and we all know that most of the content published on TikTok is available on YouTube too.
Yes youtube can be educational for you to change the oil of the car but it’s not needed for child under 16.
If YouTube are not part of the ban, they need to put better age restrictions and improved content review process before publishing. Because today, kids can just freely browse unauthenticated.