Australia widens teen social media ban to YouTube, scraps exemption

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/australia-widens-teen-social-media-ban-youtube-scraps-exemption-2025-07-29/

36 comments

  1. That’s just stupid. Kids know about VPNs and will use them………and there is nothing Australia can do about it.

  3. i had access to rotten.com when i was a kid and turned out fine

  4. If the parents are the problem by not parenting their children then address that. If the algorithms that harm children are the problem then address that. Making every single adult give identifying information to the business that runs said harmful algorithms, or to another business they outsourced age verification to, is not the solution. All of these laws are a blatant giveaway to any business that deals with data and/or AI technology. And why are we telling people to trust these businesses with their personal information when these are the very same ones that were doing all of the harm to begin with?

  5. Youtube has brought it on themselves. I have reported multiple posts for vulgar racist statements and they usually don’t do a thing about it. If you report an account as being someone taking someone else’s ID then you might as well be urinating into the wind! Couldn’t happen to a more deserving company in my opinion.

  6. YouTube is of course social media, but it’s also incredibly important as a tool

  7. This isn’t and never was about the kids.

    They are expanding control and censorship and they know this method won’t work but they are going to use this as a excuse to go for more draconic methods like a ID to connect to the Internet at all and possibly a VPN ban.

    Sadly it’s looking like other countries are moving in this direction and it’s simply because the Internet is one of the last places people can speak freely and governments hate that because they can’t control it.

  8. Most of Australia thinks this is stupid and a complete waste of time but you know, let’s create more laws and nerd the world ao in turn as Australians we can ignore it and crack on with our lives

  10. So even the progressive left is as regressive as the conservative right. They just use different reasons to come to the same conclusion. Control over you and what you consume.

  11. So its just a coincidence that UK implemented this last week and not people conspiring across the anglosphere to erode our rights?

  12. FYI because literally no one wants to read the article, the ban is on YouTube ACCOUNTS. YouTube will still be accessible, kids under 16 just won’t be able to create an account and therefore can’t comment or view age restricted videos.

  13. i find youtube to be a great source of knowledge when used the right way.

    i also see my younger family members consume some crazy shit on youtube that they dont even realize. some of it being russian propaganda in the form of cartoons, and some stuff that would just be midly disturbing in general, but the fact that its in a video marketed to kids and fed to them in the algorithm makes it much more disturbing.

    to me the legislation feels like overreach, but fuck im not australian, and if this incentivizes yt to moderate their content in a more meaningful way than they are now, i guess id be happy.

    and interesting point in the article

    “a survey that found 37% of minors reported harmful content on the site, the worst showing for a social media platform.”

    notably, this is reported by minors themselves.

  14. Why do we need AI when more than half our population is stupid

  15. Man I can’t imagine YouTube getting banned when I was a teenager. I learned so much including building PCs and a bunch of other tech stuff that has helped me with my job today. How about parents be parents and teach your kids? This just removes the responsibility of raising kids from the parents. I mean if you’re not capable of doing that or don’t have the time then don’t have kids.

  16. These laws being passed by Australia, the UK, and portions of the USA are just terrible. There’s zero reasons for anyone to be forking over government ID just to use social media. The issue with the young generation is bad educating and bad parenting and regulating over social media. The government shouldn’t be interfering in this.

  17. I’m generally supportive of this ban but I believe they’re going about it the wrong way. 

    People just don’t want another way for their identity to be stolen. If the government wants this to work they should set up a system themselves that acts like a pass key on the device and the only thing the website or app gets is yes or no. Technically the government could track what websites you go on to with this system by looking at what website requests the yes or no but your ISP  already has that information and you could get around both of those problems with a VPN. 

    I feel like forcing the websites themselves to do this checking it’s just the wrong way to go about it. Private businesses will always pick the cheapest option and sometimes that means the lowest security. 

  18. My father strongly supports the ban. I tried to reason with him by explaining how great the education content is. He countered with “but the paedophilia and all the sex stuff”. You can’t reason with just plain ignorant.

  19. It’s pretty funny how a country of 27 million people can dictate the terms of the internet.

    This is coming from a pissed off Aussie.

  20. Why does labour come up with the most draconian internet censorship when they eventually get to power.

    Still hate that cunt Steven Conroy and here they are doing similar shit again.

  22. I feel like the powers that be are starting to forget that bread and circus make for a placated populace.

    Economy overall is pretty crap for most common folks and now they’re coming for entertainment. Do they really want the people to shift focus onto the sneaky crap they’re getting away with all the time?

    There is a coordinated effort behind the simultaneity of this all-fronts-assault on the internet, and i dont think this ends the way they think it would.

  23. No more Gas Station Encounters for you, Aussie teen! She go-one!

  24. and this is why ive always been against all social media bans for minors. it will never stop there.

  25. Everytime labor gets in they pull this nonsense with a waste of time and money policy that is emotional rather than logical

  26. Australia and UK on a Victorian moralist’s crusade to censor the entire internet?

    The fuck is all this…

  27. Nobody in Australia asked for this…

    (Except maybe Rupert Murdoch because Youtube is putting him out of business)

  30. Oh look, the kids used their parents ID. This will definitely keep children off YouTube said no one with half a brain

  31. Scraps exemption in bill that never had any language in it to support having exemption clauses. This was pushed through by newscorp (Murdoch’s group) using a change.org that they didn’t even bother changing the author from ‘newscorp’ for.

  32. Blaming parentes everywhere for being irresponsible, now the rest of us have to pay for it. 

  33. I feel like teens not being able to educate themselves on the benefits of breastfeeding out of fear of their little boners, is why autism and cheap drugs are the future.

  34. All these conspiracy theories. The government has all your important information stored. Consider this done.

  35. All in all this makes perfect sense, but should be a bit lower, 16 is too late to introduce kids to the internet

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