No products in the cart.
What you need to know
- YouTube will auto-sign out all Australian users under 16 starting December 10 to comply with the new Social Media Minimum Age Act.
- Teenagers lose all account features: subscriptions, commenting, uploading, and parental controls.
- Google warns the ban will make teens less safe, while the Australian government says that’s YouTube’s problem to solve.
After weeks of discussions between Silicon Valley and Canberra, YouTube has confirmed it will comply with Australia’s social media ban on teenagers. Beginning December 10, the platform will robotically signal out customers underneath 16. It’s a basic change to how the platform works for younger folks, and Google is not hiding its frustration.
What was initially billed as a crackdown on social media apps has now expanded to incorporate YouTube, regardless of Google’s insistence that YouTube doesn’t function like Fb, Instagram, or Snapchat. However regulators dominated in any other case, and the platform should adjust to the Social Media Minimal Age Act.
The timing and scope have caught mother and father, teenagers, and creators off guard. For a lot of Australians, YouTube was greater than only a social feed. It provided leisure, homework assist, and an area for creators. Now, all these options disappear as quickly as a consumer is discovered to be underneath 16.
As an alternative, they are going to be pushed right into a stripped-down YouTube expertise the place they will watch movies however can’t like, subscribe, remark, or add. Parental controls disappear completely as a result of YouTube’s supervision instruments solely work when a consumer is signed in.
