Google reignites campaign against under-16s social media ban
Sarah Hansen-Young wants to subpoena Tiktok, Meta and Snapchat to appear before the Senate
Google has mounted a final push against Australia’s proposed social media ban for under-16s, just six weeks ahead of its implementation on 10 December.
Appearing remotely at Senate Estimates in Canberra today, Youtube’s Rachel Lord reiterated the tech giant’s stance that the legislation will be “extremely difficult to enforce” and “does not fulfil its promise of making kids safer online”. Youtube is owned by Google, and until July was hopeful of being exempted from the under-16s ban.
While Google, Youtube and Microsoft appeared, Meta, Snapchat and Tiktok ignored a request from the committee to appear: a refusal which had Greens Senator Sarah Hansen-Young calling for them to be forced to give testimony.
“I just want to put on the record that we did request that Meta, Snapchat and Tiktok appear today,” she said.
“They so far have refused and the senate committee will be discussing what we do. I for one think we should be using the powers of the Senate to subpoena their appearance.”
Under questioning from senators, Youtube’s Lord argued that requiring users under 16 to remain in a “logged-out” state would effectively strip them of Youtube’s parental controls and safety features, which are only accessible when logged into an account.
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These tools include contextual ad targeting instead of personalised ads; blocked ads for alcohol, drugs, body image and gambling; auto-play restrictions, and features like “take a break” prompts.
“Youtube has invested heavily in designing age-appropriate products and industry-leading content controls,” Lord added. “Forcing kids to use Youtube without an account removes the very parental controls and safety filters built to protect them across sport, music, creative learning and classrooms.”
She also warned that an unintended consequence of the legislation could be more children accessing content through parents’ or adults’ accounts, which she described as “a really poor safety outcome.”
Google and Microsoft’s appearance before the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee coincides with a series of private meetings between Communications Minister Anika Wells and major platforms, including the missing Meta, Tiktok, and Snapchat.
Wells is expected to reiterate government expectations for the implementation of the law, but warning the platforms that “there is no excuse not to be ready”, according to an announcement from her office.
Note: Lord’s official title is “senior manager of government affairs and public policy in Australia and NZ”.
