YouTube will comply with under-16s social media ban but says parental and wellbeing controls will be lost
Josh Butler
YouTube has agreed to comply with the federal government’s under-16s social media ban, announcing its decision a week out from the 10 December start date.
However Google, the owner of the video site, has again strongly criticised the law, saying it “won’t keep teens safer online” and “fundamentally misunderstands” how children use the internet.
Rachel Lord, Google and YouTube Australia’s public policy senior manager, confirmed the video platform will comply with the legislation in a blog post on Wednesday.
She said the site will automatically sign out all users it detects to be aged under 16. However users under 16 will still be able to watch YouTube videos in a signed-out state.
Lord said not signing in would mean children lose access to “features that only work when you are signed into an account, including subscriptions, playlists and likes, and default wellbeing settings like “Take a Break” and Bedtime Reminders”.
Google also warns that parents “will lose the ability to supervise their teen or tween’s account on YouTube”, such as content settings blocking specific channels.
Lord said “this rushed regulation misunderstands our platform and the way young Australians use it. Most importantly, this law will not fulfill its promise to make kids safer online, and will, in fact, make Australian kids less safe on YouTube”.
She said a lack of parental controls and safety filters “are the unfortunate consequences of a rushed legislative process that failed to allow for adequate consultation and consideration of the real complexities of online safety regulation.”
The law also fundamentally misunderstands why teens come to YouTube in the first place.
We are committed to finding a better path forward to keep kids safe online.
Key events
Josh Taylor
More on the eSafety commissioner’s letter to a US lawmaker
Julie Inman Grant told senators that Australians expect companies providing services into Australia to abide by Australian laws. She also pointed out that since the Wakeley church stabbing case that X challenged in the court and eSafety ended up dropping, the agency had accepted geo-blocking Australian users from seeing the posts as compliance with Australian law.
So the conclusion is nothing that we do here with the Online Safety Act affects anything that an American platform will serve to Americans. So no, it does not impinge upon Americans’ freedom of speech.
Inman Grant would not make her letter public until Jim Jordan had seen it, she said, noting that Jordan’s letter to her made its way to Sky News at the same time it was sent to her
I am just in the process of sending that to the chairman right now. I think out of respect for him – when he sent me his letter, he sent it concurrently, it appears, to Sky News – I prefer to send it official to official.
David Pocock disappointed Labor ducking key recommendations after ‘jobs for mates’ report
Independent senator David Pocock said he was deeply disappointed the Labor government had largely refused to accept the recommendations made in a scathing “jobs for mates” report released yesterday.
Pocock spoke to RN Breakfast, saying there remained “legitimate circumstances” whether former politicians were the “right person” for some jobs. His comments come after the anticipated report by former public service commissioner Lynette Briggs, who found broad dissatisfaction with the processes used by government departments and ministers in making appointments to many boards.
Pocock said the lack of guardrails to ensure integrity was “corrosive to our democracy”, adding:
It’s so disappointing to have a Labor government that talked such a big game and I think very rightly criticised the Morrison government on jobs for mates.
When given all these recommendations, and I think critically the need to actually legislate this, they’ve said, ‘no, we’re just going to have a framework and a little bit more transparency, we want to be able to continue to essentially appoint who we want’.
eSafety chief rejects US congressman’s claim she is a ‘zealot for global takedowns’
Josh Taylor
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has rejected claims from a US congressman that she is a “zealot for global takedowns” and has said she has written back to him to explain her role.
Last month, Jim Jordan, the US Republican chair of the House judiciary committee, wrote to Inman Grant asking her to speak before the committee he chairs.
He requested Inman Grant be interviewed by the committee, stating “your expansive interpretation and enforcement of Australia’s [Online Safety Act] … directly threatens American speech”. Jordan referenced eSafety’s failed attempt to have X remove tweets of footage of the 2024 church stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.
Jordan referred to Inman Grant as a “noted zealot for global takedowns”.
Inman Grant was due to indicate yesterday whether she would agree to the interview to Jordan. But she told Senate estimates last night she was sending a letter to Jordan, but did not confirm whether she would appear before the committee.
What I am zealous about is protecting children online but I will be going back to him with a letter, explaining a few things.
Union asks workplace regulators to investigate ANZ
Jonathan Barrett
The Finance Sector Union (FSU) has called for an investigation into ANZ’s handling of major job cuts after accusing the bank of failing to act on serious health and safety concerns raised by workers.
FSU’s decision to write to workplace health and safety regulators across Australia follows a decision by the major bank to slash 3,500 jobs, including some just before Christmas.
The ANZ chief executive, Nuno Matos, told parliament last month the cuts were “not something I am proud of”, but added that they were in the “best interests of our customers” because the bank’s operations had become too complex.
The FSU national president Wendy Street said:
[Matos has] refused to delay redundancies for employees who face an exit in December, refused to provide clarity on the outstanding job cuts and isn’t showing even a basic level of compassion for people under enormous stress ahead of Christmas.
People are distressed as they face uncertainty as they’re being forced out at the most stressful time of the year.
ANZ declined to comment.
Indigenous Australians twice as likely to face barriers accessing internet, study finds
Douglas Smith
Indigenous Australians are twice as likely as other Australians to face barriers to accessing, affording and using the internet, a university report has found.
The Mapping the Digital Gap report conducted by RMIT and Swinburne University of Technology, found barriers are far greater for those living in remote areas of the country, with three in four Indigenous people living in remote and very remote communities experiencing digital exclusion.
Assoc Prof Daniel Featherstone from RMIT said it meant significant barriers in accessing and using online services needed for daily social, economic and cultural life.
He said:
Connectivity is an essential service nowadays, especially in remote communities.
But there are a range of barriers to having affordable and reliable internet access in these communities – largely due to limited or strained infrastructure, low household connectivity and high reliance on pre-paid mobile services.
While the study found a 10.5-point digital gap on the Australian digital inclusion index (ADII), the research also found an 8.7-point improvement in digital ability for Indigenous people in very remote communities, rising from 45.8 in 2023 to 54.5 in 2025.
The ADII measures how Australians access and use digital technologies, factoring in digital skills and affordability out of 100.
Good morning
And welcome to a new day. Nick Visser here to take things over – let’s get to it.
Bruce Lehrmann to learn fate of defamation appeal
Former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann will today learn whether a second return to the lion’s den has overturned his loss in a defamation case against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson, AAP reports.
The 30-year-old sued for defamation over an interview with Brittany Higgins on The Project in 2021.
In 2024 Justice Michael Lee found against Lehrmann, and said in his judgment that Higgins’s claims Lehrmann had raped her inside Parliament House two years earlier were established on the balance of probabilities.
He commented in his judgment that: “Having escaped the lion’s den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat.”
Lehrmann appealed against the finding during a two-day hearing in August, arguing the judge erred in finding Ten and Wilkinson had legally justified the imputation of rape.
After months of deliberations, the full bench of the federal court is due to hand down its decision today.
Josh Taylor
More from the Roblox questions last night:
David Pocock asked if eSafety was conducting its own experiments such as those carried out by our reporter Sarah Martin to see what Roblox features are like.
Inman Grant said eSafety was assessing if it had the legal ability to set up accounts for its own testing.
We look at a range of factors in terms of determining what we consider to be the relative risk, experts, things like that. Where those tests have been done.
[On the weekend] I’m often reading 404 Media or the Guardian or whatever it is, or Wired and sending [my team] some research to look at.
So we’re doing that. We’re doing some of our own testing. And we’re using our transparency powers, but we’re also just taking complaints in from the general public through our complaints schemes every day.
eSafety probed on Roblox following Guardian investigation
Independent senator David Pocock asked the eSafety commissioner in Senate estimates last night about Guardian Australia’s investigation into Roblox and what children may experience on the platform.
With Roblox not subject to the under-16s social media ban, Pocock asked whether Roblox was deemed as a gaming platform or a platform that is “actually enabling social interactions”?
Julie Inman Grant responded by detailing the changes Roblox has announced that would use age assurance to separate age groups from interacting with each other.
eSafety officials said that Roblox has been assessed as having a primary purpose for gaming – which is one of the exemptions from the ban – but as services evolve over time and more features are added that have a social aspect, it is something the platforms must continually assess themselves as to whether they might be covered by the ban.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Nick Visser will take the helm.
It was a busy night at Senate estimates, with the eSafety commissioner grilled on matters relating to the imminent social media ban for under-16s. First, independent senator David Pocock asked Julie Inman Grant about Guardian Australia’s investigation into Roblox and why the platform is not subject to the ban. Inman Grant also told senators that she rejected claims from a US congressman that she was a “zealot for global takedowns”. More coming up.
Indigenous Australians are twice as likely as other Australians to face barriers to accessing, affording and using the internet, a university report has found. Minding the Digital Gap found that poor strained infrastructure, low household connectivity and reliance on prepaid mobile services hampered access. More soon.
And this morning the federal court will hand down its judgment on Bruce Lehrmann’s appeal against his defamation case loss against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson. We’ll be bringing you all the developments.
