Protecting teens in the digital world, not from the digital world

The rise in popularity of new technologies among teenagers, from gaming to smartphones to streaming platforms, has understandably raised important questions about not only the right way for parents to help their kids navigate the changing tech landscape; but also the role that regulation should play in both protecting and empowering young people.

To that end, we’ve worked with policymakers globally to address their questions about how to protect young people online, and have put forward a detailed policy proposal that has been well-received.

Almost everyone recognizes that there are immense benefits from YouTube – it is a source of education, entertainment and inspiration to young people around the world. Unfortunately, in some countries like Australia, governments are taking an extreme position of pursuing outright bans on accounts on YouTube for people under a certain age, often under 16.

Last week we shared an update on what YouTube will look like for users and creators in Australia as a result of the new law. As other governments around the world consider how to tackle the very real challenge of helping young people stay safe online while also helping them access positive material, it's clear that blanket account bans will have extremely negative consequences.

Here are four reasons we believe that banning or age-gating YouTube in this way is likely to be counterproductive:

Poorly designed regulations make kids less safe

We’ve invested for more than a decade in working with child development experts to build tailored products like YouTube Kids for our youngest users, launch supervised experiences for teens and tweens, and implement robust parental controls for all minors. We bake these protections right into our products and give parents the ability to choose what their families watch.

Blanket bans take these choices away from parents and instead push kids out of these more curated, supervised spaces. Kids end up using adults’ accounts, or browse anonymously, and often access less safe services on the internet – reports are saying this is already happening. The Australian law, for example, will mean that young people accessing YouTube will have none of the protections, parental controls, or features (like blocking individual channels) that we put into our supervised tween and teen accounts.

Creative expression is worth preserving

YouTube’s mission is to give everyone a voice and show them the world, but we must also make sure that young people learn how to explore and share safely. It’s worth preserving the tremendous benefits that come from the ability for everyone to have a voice in the context of thoughtful safeguards. YouTube provides young people with digital skills, connection, learning, and the opportunity for both creative and political expression.

For some young people, YouTube even provides the opportunity to get an early start in a creative career. Some of the world’s biggest artists — from Justin Bieber and Dua Lipa to BTS and Troye Sivan — got their start on YouTube as teenagers.

This isn’t just a creative opportunity; it’s an economic one. YouTube’s creator ecosystem supports millions of jobs around the world and contributes meaningfully to global GDP. YouTube has paid more than US$100 billion to creators, artists, and media companies over the last three years, in almost every country in the world.

Evidence-based regulation is a better way forward

We support evidence-based regulation that protects teens in the digital world, not from it. This includes proposals that require industry-wide standards for parental controls, limit access to specific types of risky features, require product development input from independent child safety experts, implement privacy-preserving age-estimation tools, and set clear content standards.

Regulation should also require platforms to offer a range of privacy-preserving, age-appropriate settings that help parents address the unique needs and preferences of children at every age. And regulation should ban personalized advertising to minors and the sale of children’s and teens’ personal information to third parties, including data brokers.

This type of comprehensive approach would ensure that platforms are incentivized to build safer, age-appropriate experiences, and parents are empowered to make the right choices for their families.

And of course, alongside regulation, the tech, media, and entertainment industries have a responsibility to their youngest users, and we will continue our ongoing work and investment, complementing our constructive engagement with regulators around the world on these important issues.