Communications Between The Office For The Minister For Communications And Representatives Of Google Between 1 October 2024 And 31 December 2024 Regarding The Social Media Ban For Under 16s.

Written by Claude Haiku 4.5 from the extracted text on 27 Feb 2026. It can miss or misread redacted and scanned pages. Check the source before relying on it.

Google CEO Neal Mohan wrote to Minister Rowland on 19 November 2024 opposing the government's proposed legislated minimum age ban for social media access. Mohan argued that YouTube is fundamentally different from other social media platforms, lacking features designed to facilitate social connections and increasingly accessed through shared family spaces via connected TVs rather than personal devices. He highlighted YouTube's existing age-appropriate offerings including YouTube Kids and teen supervision features, as well as new safeguards for content recommendations and partnerships with the WHO and Common Sense Networks. Mohan emphasised YouTube's educational value, citing an August 2024 Ipsos study showing 84% of Australian teachers use YouTube monthly for classroom learning and 82% would recommend it to students. The letter positioned YouTube's youth safety commitments and differentiated user experience as reasons the platform should be treated separately from other social media services under any regulatory framework.