Blocking YouTube would be a disaster for Aussie kids
As laws to ban children under 16 from using social media are being hand-balled through the halls of parliament at record pace, it seems that alongside TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, YouTube is now somehow in the firing line.
This is clearly nonsensical. YouTube is a video platform, like Netflix. It’s user-generated, sure, but so is Wikipedia. I’m about to make a number of arguments as to why banning Australian kids from either participating in or watching YouTube would be a disastrous move – but most simple of all is that, by definition, YouTube doesn’t classify as a social media platform.
I’m all for banning You-Tube. The amount of s**t on there overwhelms the good stuff. They need some way of screening the content properly before it should be allowed. What’s scary is that there is some really nasty content out there targeted little kids and disguised as innocent material – I’ve come across cute penguins that tell kids to run in front of cars, this weird video with a horrifying sun that comes up to scare kids. And the constant, constant advertising (adults playing with kids toys usually) is just so bad! I’m continually battling the algorithms, continually having to monitor. I rue the day introduced my daughter to You-Tube. Now she knows its existence every time she asks for it becomes another battle for this overtired mum.
As with any UGC (User-Generated Content) it’s up to the poster / owner of the channel to declare what the content is about, via the meta data, and the classification of the content. With over 500 hours upload every minute Globally, there’s never going to be a silver-bullet solution for advertisers, or the comments above where “children are being served constant advertising”.
YouTube is meant for Teens, or from at least 10+ – There’s an App called YT Kids which should cater for popping on Peppa, Ms Rachel or The Wiggles – all without advertising. Brand Suitability and Safety platforms do exist in the market, where you can almost guarantee the content you run against, but as with anything on the big ol’ web, if you seek it, you will find it.
The Government might want to spend a bit of time with 13-14yr olds and see the stuff they get up to – rather than trying to block the world’s biggest and most successful website…
They 100% do use it as social media – specifically YouTube Shorts. It’s scrollable and uses algorithms to serve content. With age put into YouTube to lock down content for my 9 year old boy he was still being served up videos of women undressing. It’s completely unlicensed. For my young teen girls who aren’t allowed social media apps, they scroll content just like TikTok as they can access easily via their browsers. It’s parents vs AI algorithms and we’ve lost.
It’s time to get government out of the business of parenting
Perhaps Leo Puglisi can post a video explaining what Social Media is for Nathan Jolly.
YouTube serves as a video-sharing site that allows users to create, upload, and share videos while fostering social interaction and community engagement. I.E. Social Media.
Netflix is completely different!
It’s time for Social Media platforms to take responsibility for the content they monetise, full stop. They need to be transparent and held to the same standards as domestic media. Until they behave responsibly their use amongst children should be limited – whilst they can be beneficial they do cause real and significant harm.
Be careful, children are easy to be lead away. Parents watch your what your children looking at on utube. Please!!!!!! ???????