Youtube slams eSafety commissioner’s ‘advice’ on logging out
Youtube has hit out against a statement issued by the eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant, which the video platform described as “advice for younger people” to log out of accounts.
Inman Grant released the statement on Thursday afternoon, “correcting mistaken claims” about Youtube.
She wrote, the “adoption of eSafety’s advice would not mean that children are no longer able to access educational content on YouTube.”
“The new law will only restrict children under the age of 16 from having their own accounts – not accessing content on YouTube or any other service through links from the school or in a ‘logged-out’ state.
“There is nothing in the legislation that prevents educators with their own accounts from continuing to incorporate school-approved educational content on YouTube or any other service just as they do now.”
Julie Inman Grant at the National Press Club
Rachel Lord, public policy and government regulations senior manager at Youtube Australia and New Zealand, said Inman Grant’s “advice for younger people to use YouTube in a ‘logged out’ state deprives them of the age-appropriate experiences and additional safety guardrails we specifically designed for younger people.”
Lord said Youtube is “not a social media platform; it is a video streaming platform with a library of free, high-quality content”.
She continued: “eSafety’s advice to include YouTube in the social media ban is in direct contradiction to the Government’s own commitment, its own research on community sentiment, independent research, and the view of Australian parents, teachers and other key stakeholders in this debate.”
This comes after Inman Grant drew attention to the harms arising from the platform during her address at the National Press Club on Tuesday, saying its algorithm leaves children “powerless”.
Lord also rebuffed these claims, issuing a statement after the address, saying Inman Grant’s position “represents inconsistent and contradictory advice.”
On Monday, the Minister for Communications, Anika Wells, published advice from Inman Grant, which recommends Youtube not be excluded from the under-16 social media ban, which is due to go into effect this December.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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