Keeping young people safe online is a rallying cry we can all get behind. But the furor in Australia over plans to ban children under 16 from social media shows it’s not as simple as it sounds.
At the center of the latest debate over the rules set to come into effect later this year is Alphabet’s YouTube. Officials this summer said they were reversing a promised exemption from the legislation for the video-sharing site. Part of the reason YouTube’s inclusion has struck such a nerve is because it’s impossible to overstate how intertwined it has become with pop culture for a generation who grew up on it.
Australia’s online regulator said it was the most-used social media platform for the nation’s youth (and claimed it’s the biggest source of online harms, from misogynistic content to violent videos). But it has also been a springboard for young creators, especially from marginalized groups, to find community and even launch multimillion-dollar careers. YouTube is where Grammy-nominated singer Troye Sivan first gained popularity, posting covers of pop songs and vlogs as a teen in Perth — and where he publicly came out as gay in 2013.
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