Mixed Reactions As Australia Adds YouTube To The Social Media Ban For Children

The Australian government's plan to ban social media for under 16s is causing controversy - we discuss whether it's a good idea or not.

It's the news everyone's talking about - the upcoming social media ban for Aussie teenagers. In this lively episode, we discuss the government's plan to block access to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and more for under 16s from December 10th. And now YouTube's been added to the ban list too, sparking backlash from Google. We hear opinions from mums and teenagers themselves on whether cutting kids off from social media is the right approach. There's debate around how effective the ban will actually be, with some clever teens already finding loopholes. But keeping kids offline could delay exposure to inappropriate content. Is it too little too late, or a step in the right direction? Tune in to hear our thoughts.

0:00 Intro
2:15 News of the social media ban under 16
3:05 YouTube added to banned platforms
4:20 Mum's view - bans welcomed in her household
5:30 Teen already finding ways to bypass ban
7:05 Trying digital detox - changes mood
8:15 Concerns over losing educational content
9:20 Keeping kids off sites as long as possible has benefits

Key takeaways:
- Major social media platforms now banned for Aussie under 16s
- Some support ban but question how effective it will be
- Could delay exposure to inappropriate content
- Educational content may also be lost

Want to join the debate? Don't miss this lively discussion on the social media ban. Tap through now to listen to the full episode.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
My Heart podcasts here more mix one or two point
three podcasts, playlists and listen live on the free iHeart app.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
All right, so you've woken up to news this morning.
Everyone knows about this social media band that's happening in December.
From December ten, anyone under the age of sixteen will
be banned from Facebook, Instagram, x TikTok Snapchat.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Right.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Great, but we've woken up with a new thing. That
YouTube has been added to this list as well.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah, and as YouTube's not thrilled about it, Google has
already threatened to sue the Australian government for the decision
to include it in the band.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
I think, as a mum of two boys ten and thirteen,
I think it is so welcomed in my household because
I'm sick of YouTube shorts and Preston and mister Beast
and all the things that does wrot your brain because
when they stop watching YouTube, they come back to the
kitchen or wherever we are, and then just in the
fouless mood, it changes your whole mental health.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
And I am of the opinion that the band's not
going to do much because you're probably going to find
whatever you want to find because the internet's massive and
these sites are just a few of them.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Cassie in Riverton, what are your thoughts on this?

Speaker 4 (01:13):
I think it's not going to work because the kids
can put in a fake ID, so they'll say they're eighteen,
nineteen twenty. My daughter's twelve and does that now so
that she can be on certain sites. I've taken the
modem away, taken the phone away, and then it just
causes a monster. So for however long she doesn't have
the items, she is an absolute shithead. They need the baby, yep.

(01:38):
They need to maybe bring in that. They need their
student ID or birth certificate even to prove their age
to be able to be on these platforms. Because it's
not going to work.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah right, I tend to agree.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
I think you're going to be able to find whatever
you want to find.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
You don't actually know exactly how it's going to be monitored.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yet.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
We think you have to reauthenticate yourself online people who
already have an account.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
You just don't go on YouTube anymore. You find something different.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
It's almost like they need to detox Cassie because you're
saying that she's in a bad moon until she gets old.

Speaker 4 (02:03):
They're terrible, but absolutely terrible.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
But have you ever tried it, like not having any
social media or anything for like a week and all
of a sudden.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
I can't laugh the week, I'll end up in mental health.

Speaker 5 (02:13):
No, and we live on.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
A farm, so she's got all the farm animals that
she can attend to, but she needs terrible. Yeah, she
can just literally.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
All right, thank you for your opinion. Megan in Manopara.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
What do you reckon on the new YouTube being added
to the things that are banned in December?

Speaker 6 (02:32):
Well, they've already got YouTube Kids, which I don't let
my son watch because it's a target for predators my son. Well,
there's a theory behind it that predators are actually targeting.

Speaker 7 (02:45):
YouTube kids, oh.

Speaker 6 (02:48):
And putting videos on I don't know. I read it somewhere.
So my son has access directly to my YouTube. Thank
give him the exits. Yeah, adult YouTube. He sits there
and he's and I've punched in, you know, so the
algorithm gets what he wants. He doesn't like something, he
swipes long. But then on the flip side of that,
I use YouTube to learn how to change taps crochet.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
You know, and you can still do that because you're
an adult.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Now it's popping up in her son's algorithm and he's
sitting there scrolling and he's getting someone changing the taps.

Speaker 6 (03:19):
Yeah, and he's like he's four though, so as he grows,
it's going to be like, oh, well, I'm a single mum.
There's no man in his life, how do we change
a tire? Let's YouTube it. What other video streaming apps
are there out there to allow these things to train
and do things?

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, that is a good point, but in that situation,
you would ask an adult to go, hey, can you
show me this video?

Speaker 1 (03:43):
The kid only has one adult. Megan's busy, she's at work.
Some of the biggest YouTube accounts are blokes. I forget
the exact name of it, but you know, like my
dad's not here and the guy just teaches you how
to change a tire, how to tire a tire, how
to change a tap, like all of the things that
your dad might teach you how to do. These have
tens of millions of you.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
You know, there's some great things on YouTube. We're not
taking that away.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
We're taking away like the stupid games and things that
the people watch, people playing roblo and stuff like that
it's just ruining your brain.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Chloe and lugs North, what's your opinion on this YouTube
being included in the social media band cloth.

Speaker 5 (04:16):
Yeah, I'm I'm with Hailey. I I'm not disappointed. I
probably would have if social media was around when I
was a teenager, I probably would have been eaten alive.
My daughter is thirteen. She's got a phone. She's still
got access to messaging all of her friends on like
little messenger groups and stuff, but she's not got TikTok,

(04:37):
she's not got Snapchat and all those kind of apps,
whereas all of her friends have got it. And we've
had a discussion and she doesn't feel like she's missing
out because she hasn't got it.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Are ready change, Chloe? Because I feel like that will
change as they get older and maybe they get sharing
it on Snapchat. What are you going to say when
she goes mum, I actually do think I want Snapchat.

Speaker 5 (04:56):
Yeah, we're not naive to the fact that it's going
to change. We're not naive to that. But I think,
you know, a phone is a big thing, and when
I was growing up, there wasn't camera phones, you know,
so all your stupid stuff that you did there was cameras,
thank god, and people sharing stuff. I know, So you know,
I think just small steps. She's happy with their phone
and you know, taking esteraly selfies and stuff like that.

(05:19):
But yeah, eventually she will be a teenager and she
probably will want that, but hopefully she's more mature by
then and can handle. Yeah, that's out there so as
much my ten year old. My ten year old will
happily scroll through the stupid YouTube videos and the dumb
voices that drive me Madstand.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
It sounds like the longer you can keep them off
of it, the better.

Speaker 8 (05:42):
The better.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Totally you're over the it's.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Gonna happen anyway. But if we can keep them off
for as long as we can, then that's excellent. Keep
the calls coming. We are on and for another nine minutes,
so we'd love to hear from you. Thirteen one oh
two three.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Vanessa and Christie's Beach. Your fourteen year old son is
with you right now. Can you tell us what he
said about this?

Speaker 7 (06:02):
He is Tay, guys. So we're driving to high school
General Dinger, and he told me that he's pretty sure
that the kids will know to change the VPN address
or the VPN number and to change it to the US,
but then it's not Australian and then apparently they can
get around it like that.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
But surely the people making the rules are smart enough
to know that that's what kids will do, so they'll
have ways around that to block him from doing that.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
Surely, Well, you can't block everything.

Speaker 7 (06:32):
You just then that he has a few other ideas.
But he said about face if they made it facial
recognition as well, he said, he goes, look, mom, and
he like scrunched up his face, and he goes, I
could literally just do this and it will make me
look older.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
You know, if you don't want him on there, would
you tell your kids, Like I'll tell my kids that
if they get caught, they'll go to jail.

Speaker 7 (06:57):
I've already told them that. I've already told them, and
they're just like, we'll get it, We'll get away with it.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
I feel like smart enough to know how to use
a VPN and pretend that he is buzzed into Facebook
from somewhere in California, He's probably going to be smart
enough to know he's not going to jail.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
I'm going to set up actors that come in and
fly in like a swat team that fly into my house.
The guys the police are here and then they get
in the van on the way up to yaller.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
How far are you going? With this far?

Speaker 1 (07:24):
All the way, I'll spend a week up there, Just kidding.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Chrisin Olroanella all right.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
YouTube added to the list of things that are going
to be banned for under sixteen year olds as of December.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
What do you reckon as a dad?

Speaker 8 (07:37):
Yeah, I think I think it only work for the
parents that are willing to do it. I think if
if they want their kids to watch it, they will. Personally,
I blame I blame the streaming services, to be quite honest,
because unfortunately you've got to pay to watch movies and
sport and everything else. And I believe that it should

(07:57):
all be free to air because as a kid I
was I was out training six nights out of seven,
and the only time I was ever ever on social
media was if I had a chance after dinner to
do it before bed. Other than that, I was always
out and about. But I could watch I could watch
sport and movies for free on free to air, and
it wasn't an issue.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
This is a really good point that I hadn't thought of,
because imagine if that kid that you are saying at
the dinner table or whatever, just do this and distract,
like distract yourself. You can hand them the free to
wear online like if that existed and they just scroll
through it. I'll have a bit of Bluey now, I'll
have a bit of pepper Pig now instead of YouTube
where you have the entire internet at your feet. Oh yeah,

(08:40):
has an idea.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Chris is very smart.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
That's probably why like SBS on demand and the ABC
I view up there may be a little bit safer
and they're free. Yeah, they've got a few kids films.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
Well you're onto something, Chris. See we needed dad on
the show.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Thank you.