Call for a YouTube ban for kids due to exposure to harmful content

Published Jun 24, 2025, 12:04 AM
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Just had a quick look at the Kids TV show its full episodes on YouTube, Bluie Being Fim and Sam Angela and Aconda, and there is so much more.

Doctor Alexia Maddox.

Is the senior lecturer at Latrobe University's School of Education. The E Safety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant wants kids to be banned from using the video sharing site YouTube.

How do you feel about that? Good morning, Alexa, good.

Morning, Thanks for having me. How do I feel about that? Well, it's a very interesting question. So YouTube definitely qualified to the age ban the age ban application. It is a social media platform kids can post content, connect with each other, so the fact that it was exempted obviously it was about educational content. So we know that kids do engage with ed educational content on these platform but of course they do get exposure to other types of harmful content and other people as well. So parents naturally are concerned about the risks for kids. But unfortunately kids can still access that content even if they don't have an account. So whether the ban is about them having access control or whether it's about content is the real contradiction here.

So the E Safety Commissioner is my the recommendation that you should be added. Do you think the government will take any others?

The E Safety Commissioner can advise that it looks like the the Communications Minister is taking that advice, and because we have a new Communications Minister that they can obviously make that change in the legislation because that's the person who gets to make that call.

Right.

So you're an expert in social media? Do you worry about children being exposed on YouTube?

I definitely worry about young young children being exposed to harmful content and harmful experiences in social media. I do not think that an age ban is the way to achieve safer spaces online for kids. I think it's about the design, how we design it.

I think kids are smart. I have to get around it, Alex here, that's what I.

Think they definitely are. So for example, if there is an age band implemented, then kids can just use VP and access, or they'll go to other social media spaces that may not yet be recognized and are less regulated. So actually it creates a more unsafe environment for children than a safer one.

You can put in a fake email and get access. You don't even need to be idate.

At the moment, but they're doing technology trials to create age assurance. So these social media companies will need to implement things like facial recognition technology, and that is meant to estimate the age of the person who wants to create the account, and that's how they anticipate being able to shut kids.

Now stippets that are not appropriate, those seem to kind of find their way into an email that is sent to you that might have been left it off YouTube or any other platform for that matter. So I tend to agree with my mate over there. I think they'll find a way actually viewing it, even if they don't want to. It's a concerning area, but I don't know whether legislation is the way to go. I think I agree with you. The way we actually deliver it is probably the way that we need to advance.

We appreciate your time this morning, Thanks for having me.

Doctor Alexia Maddox, Senior lecturer at La Trobe University School of Education, is an expert