There is tons of useless and polarizing stuff on YouTube.

The degree to which some of you stick your heads in the sand is stunning. How do you even reply to this in good faith? Between the algorithms, mis/disinformation, propaganda, hate speech, bullying, and general bullshit, I don’t understand how someone can either be this naive or this fucking dishonest.

it's mostly "curated" to long form video essays about random bullshit, but i see your point

Parenting should stay with parents. The more power the government gets, the more they will abuse it. When companies are restricted, they will see this as an opportunity to better identify adults better.

The expression "it takes a village to raise a child" applies here.
It's impossible for a parent to be with their child at all times. Children aren't always at home, and a lot of parents suck, don't care, or are just misinformed.
YouTube is available everywhere, including at schools and libraries.
Look at it like smoking. We recognize that cigarettes are dangerous and cause cancer, therefore children can't buy them.
Social media companies - and let's stop pretending YouTube isn't social media, it very much is - are today's big tobacco.
They need regulated, and not doing so is causing tremendous societal harm.

Elsagate

I understand parents can't be around their children 24/7. Companies and organizations have a lot of products already to restrict and limit internet access. Schools and libraries should use these tools as they or as their community sees fit.

If you want to compare it to tobacco products, the main difference is to identify as an adult all you need is an ID. One person at the cashier sees it and it's done. Online activity is more personal. It allows companies and social media to be even more toxic to adults by being able to identify adults better.

Also kids, no matter how restricted it is, will smoke if they wanted to. The same will happen with these social media restrictions excepts that adults will suffer. This will be only the beginning. More and more restrictions will come from this. That's just how governments work.

Red flags should go up automatically with these "save the children" laws.

Sure, but adults should make their own decisions. I don't know about you, but I don't want to live in a nanny state.

I would usually say this is bad, but with the ungodly amount of AI generated slop flooding YT this is good actually

Wonderful. It’s already banned in my household.

You can say all those same things about Xitter and TikTok.

Show me where there's a 6 hour indepth deep dive into a topic on Twitter. When you can I'll agree with you.

Till then no they arnt the same, not even remotely.

YouTube is full of shit and banning it for kids is likely a smart call. Saying they are the same is just a bad faith argument of bullshit.

Iv watched tarkov stuff, Brandon Herrera and gun Jesus never seen anything close to Nazi stuff in my recommended. Hell most of my feed is a ping pong of gun stuff, femboys and trans creators.

I watched ONE freeze drier video and it took a month to get YouTube to stop giving me Nazi pepper paranoia videos.

I should have headed the warning of the good Midwestern man known as technology connections.

I didn't say they were the same, I said you could say those things about both. You're the one arguing bad faith strawman.

And yes, I agree YouTube is full of hot garbage as well. That was my point.

Good. YouTube is a contributor to increasing massive societal polarisation. We don't want kids these days turning to Nazis. Some of the kids and people I grew up with became extremist.

The trend of using child abuse as argument to implement media control mechanisms, is dangerous for society. There, i said it.

I wager it isn't the 16 year olds making this.

You sound fun and I'm sure they're bypassing that...

Oh boy, it's Online Safety Act 2: Electic Boogaloo! Get ready for:

• Teens downloading Dodgy VPNS.
• YOTI and other ID apps taking out personal info and eventually getting fuckin' hacked.
• Fake ID Apps appearing and just skipping the "Hack YOTI" Stage.
• VPN subs and Tor use to skyrocket.
• The monopolisation of out internet lives into the hands of a few social media companies.

...and much more!

I was thinking about this being wrong. But then I realized that parents can still grant access to YT for their children. However the unattended restriction age should be lower imo.

The problem is too many parents not supervising their children at all, and letting the algo make them go down in a truly despicable pile of shit of auto-play queues. My oldest one is six, and if I leave her alone on her tablet or the family room TV with YT, setting her on a path of kpop dance practice videos or some popular non-english kids show, if I check back half an hour later, sure enough the thematic changes from (likely with the help of recommended videos as well) to mindless marble/magnet builder videos, some yanky animated minecraft story or even worse.

So now imagine a kid that gets no supervision at all, and an impressionable youth without critical thinking is seeking answers and then believes whatever they are told by a late millennial just saying bogus shit for the views.

I am not sure what the right solution is, and this may not be it, but at least Australia is trying something. Let's see how it works out.