Australia to ban YouTube accounts for under 16s in policy u-turn
YouTube was previously exempt from the upcoming law change when it originally passed through Parliament in November of 2024.
The Australian government says the decision to include YouTube in the age restrictions was influenced by a survey released by Australia's independent online regulator, the e-safety Commission.
The regulator found that 37% of children surveyed reported seeing harmful content on the website.
Under the new law, children under the age of 16 will be banned from holding accounts on social media sites, which also includes Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and X.
The age restrictions will come into effect from December 10, with platforms facing fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars (around £24 million) for "failing to take responsible steps", a government statement said.
Anika Wells, Australia's Communications Minister, defended the decision, telling reporters: "The evidence cannot be ignored that four out of ten Australian kids report that their most recent harm was on YouTube.'
She added the government will not be intimidated by legal threats made by the platforms' US owner, Alphabet Inc.
"This is a genuine fight for the well-being of Australian kids, a fight the parents beside me have tragic reasons to wage with fearless determination," she said.
"There is no perfect solution when it comes to keeping young Australians safe online, but the social media minimum age laws will make a meaningful difference."
Under the new laws, children will still be able to access YouTube but will not be able to make an account.
YouTube said the government's decision "reverses a clear, public commitment to exclude YouTube from this ban".
A spokesperson added: "We share the government's goal of addressing and reducing online harms.
"Our position remains clear: YouTube is a video sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content, increasingly viewed on TV screens. It's not social media."
The website said it will consider next steps and engage with the government.
Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his country will campaign at the United Nations forum in New York this September, for international support to ban children from social media platforms.
Online services exempt from the ban include messaging, education, online gaming, and health apps as they are considered less harmful to children.
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The Guardian
7 hours ago
- The Guardian
Unmasked: the man behind one of the fastest growing far-right YouTube channels
The Guardian has identified the self-described 'national socialist' behind an openly extremist YouTube channel that in just over two months has accumulated 50,000 subscribers, seen more than 2.3m views, and likely made thousands of dollars from YouTube's revenue-sharing monetization program. Johnathan Christopher 'Chris' Booth, 37, lives in the unincorporated community of Coral, a part of Maple Valley Township in Michigan's Montcalm county, and is married to a senior local Republican official. Booth has published more than 70 YouTube videos since May on his Shameless Sperg account, whose graphic design elements feature stylized SS bolts. Titles of his videos – generally a recording of him delivering his views direct to camera – include: 'Why I Dislike Jews. It's not complicated', 'Black Crimes Matter: Never Relax' and 'Jews and FBI hate you and your free speech'. Typically the videos attract hundreds of comments from like-minded YouTube users. His channel has seen such remarkable success that it has drawn apparently baseless allegations from other far-right creators that he is a 'fed'. On an X account that frequently advertises his videos, his posts include antisemitic comments and in one response to a post about actor Jim Carrey he writes: 'All of them deserve rope. I advocate for national socialism though, under which idiots like this would not fare too well.' Despite YouTube's stated policies against hate speech and content that promotes violence against individuals or groups based on race, religion or other protected characteristics, Booth's channel appears to be monetized through the YouTube Partner Program. The channel displays ads and Booth has thanked subscribers for their financial support through the platform. YouTube's community guidelines explicitly prohibit content that 'promotes violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization'. A YouTube spokesperson said: 'Upon review, we terminated the channel for violating our community guidelines. Content that promotes violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on their ethnicity, nationality, race or religion is not allowed on YouTube.' According to YouTube, another account associated with Booth was terminated, and creators are no longer entitled to earn any revenue if their channel is terminated. The terminations happened after the Guardian reached out to YouTube with questions about Booth's activities. Also according to YouTube, content that promotes violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on their ethnicity, nationality, race or religion is not allowed on the platform. In the wake of the ban, Booth took to X to say that he would move his content to 'alt-tech' platforms such as Odysee. Booth is married to Meghyn 'Meg' Booth, the Republican treasurer of Maple Valley Township. Meg Booth has 'liked' several posts with extremist themes on Chris Booth's Facebook account with her personal account. Chris Booth's Facebook page also features extensive racist propaganda along with iconography often employed by neo-Nazis. The revelations raise questions about the extent to which YouTube, whose parent company Alphabet also owns Google, Waymo and other tech companies, has backslid on monitoring extremism on its platform. Jeff Tischauser, a senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), said Booth's operation across YouTube, X and merchandising platforms was a 'boilerplate Nazi grift'. 'He may be earning money from YouTube, as well as hawking these racist and antisemitic items on his website like cups and T-shirts,' Tischauser added. He said that YouTube is 'the premier site that these guys look to in order to expand their following and to make money off of that following'. The Guardian retrieved a Coral, Michigan, street address from EU-mandated General Product Safety Regulation compliance information on the Shameless Sperg merchandise page on the merchandising platform Printify. The property at that address is owned by Meg Booth, according to property records. Data brokers indicate that Chris Booth lives at the same address. Sites including show exterior views of the house at the property. The property's color and cladding match those visible in videos published to YouTube on 14 and 15 May. Chris Booth appears to have made some efforts to remove photographs of himself and other potentially identifying information from his own social media accounts and other online spaces. However, he is visible in 'shorts'-style videos posted by Meg Booth to Facebook. This video of Chris Booth depicts the same person visible in Shameless Sperg videos. The Guardian emailed both Chris and Meg Booth for comment. In an email, Meg Booth appeared to repudiate her husband's views. 'I am not involved in my husband's content or political views, and I do not share or support any form of racism, antisemitism, or hate speech,' she wrote, adding: 'My values are my own and are grounded in respect, inclusion, and service to the community.' Meg Booth concluded: 'As an elected official, I've always acted independently, with integrity, and in line with the expectations of my office. I respectfully decline further comment.' Chris Booth did not directly respond, but in the day after the email he took to X to reaffirm his views, including a post in which he wrote: 'I've come to believe fascists are born, not made. Discovering real fascism in my early thirties was like looking into a mirror and finally realizing why commies have called me a fascist for so long. They spotted it before I could, but then I wholeheartedly embraced it.' In his videos and on X, Booth explicitly embraces neo-Nazi ideology and promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories. On his Shameless Sperg X account, Booth writes: 'I am the Shameless Sperg, I am a National Socialist, and I do sperg rants here,' with a link to his YouTube channel. On the YouTube channel, he writes: 'This channel is a collection of sperg rants and commentary on the news & issues of the day, or whatever else is on my mind, from an autistically dissident and NS perspective.' 'Sperg', an abbreviation for Asperger syndrome, is used pejoratively in far-right circles for those whose obsessive and open extremism might put off normal people or draw unwanted attention. 'NS' is commonly used as an abbreviation for 'national socialist' in far-right circles. His videos almost all contain neo-Nazi perspectives, enunciating conspiratorial antisemitism, anti-Black racism and claims that white people are superior to all other races. In a June video titled 'There is no Anti-Semitism without Semitism', Booth states in relation to interwar Germany: 'Extreme sadism and humiliation towards Gentiles is a Jewish tradition … Now, you might begin to understand why, after 14 years of seeing their people tormented by the Jews, millions of Germans organized, gained political power and broke the chains of Jewish tyranny in Germany.' The video continues with Booth arguing that antisemitism is a just response to the behavior of Jews, and sarcastically dismisses the idea that it is 'just some ancient mental pathogen in the minds of the goyim, it just springs to life for no reason just to make things harder for the Jews'. In a July video, Booth defended recent attempts to create a whites-only community in Arkansas. He said: 'White people are allowed to congregate together without being accompanied by some fucking Black person or some Jew.' In another July video Booth said: 'Black people oppress themselves. I don't do it. I have no interest in it. I, you know, I just want them away from me. You know, I want them away from me, my community, my state, my country. I don't know. Just, I don't know, get the fuck away from me.' In a May video supporting Trump's program of allowing Afrikaner refugees into the country on the basis of a fictional 'white genocide' in South Africa, Booth said: 'You know, I'm hoping that they don't completely lose South Africa to the Black plague, but, um, but in any event, uh, things are going to fall apart for them and go shit sideways.' Tischauser, the SPLC analyst, said that the themes of Booth's videos mix 'crass racism, basic historic white power talking points' and 'pseudo-academic kind of takes on Black criminality or Black behavior'. Meg Booth, Chris Booth's wife, was in November elected as the treasurer of Maple Valley Township running as a Republican. Her public social media profile does not feature the kind of extremist messaging that Chris Booth offers on his platform, though she has interacted with posts on his Facebook account, which is also freighted with racist messaging and neo-Nazi imagery. Chris Booth also 'liked' posts in which his wife discussed her candidacy.
Daily Mail
12 hours ago
- Daily Mail
The most obnoxious MPs I've met, by ANDREW PIERCE: One physically attacked me. One called me a 'total c***'. And one philandering minister made a VERY sinister invitation. After 40 years in Westminste
It was 1988 when I first started working in Parliament as an ambitious young reporter, meaning I've met more than my fair share of Westminster characters over the decades. Some MPs – despite what you might think – are diligent, decent, dedicated men and women, working gruelling hours and thankless roles to make life for their constituents better. Others, shall we say, are not. Indeed, several MPs and peers I've had the misfortune of meeting across the political spectrum have been among the rudest and most unpleasant in any field. Here are some of the worst offenders I've met during my 40 years in journalism... NICHOLAS RIDLEY The first minister I crossed swords with in my professional life was Sir Nicholas Ridley, one of the cabal of Tory MPs who had plotted the Iron Lady's victory as party leader in 1975. It was 1983 and I was writing a story for my first newspaper, the Gloucestershire Echo, about plans for a major housing development on prized Green Belt land in his Cirencester and Tewkesbury constituency. I had spoken to Sir Charles Irving, the Tory MP for neighbouring Cheltenham, who was suitably outraged. But Ridley, a Treasury minister, stubbornly refused to return my calls. From bottom left, clockwise: Peter Mandelson, Ted Heath, David Cameron, Michael Portillo and Alastair Cambell Not to be thrown off the scent, I went to his constituency office where he was holding a Friday surgery and patiently waited in the queue to see him. When I introduced myself, Ridley – holding his trademark cigarette – exploded with rage. 'I'm a Government minister, and you are a spotty youth! Show me some respect,' he spat as he marched me from his office. But I had my scoop. 'Government minister refuses to condemn major housing development on the Green Belt in the heart of his Cotswold constituency' ran the headline – and went on to be picked up by several national news outlets. He always returned my calls after that. FERGUS MONTGOMERY I've only ever had to run for it once in the Commons – and that was in the early 1990s when I revealed that the Tory MP Sir Fergus Montgomery was hosting a party for showbusiness legend Dame Shirley Bassey. I had been to a similar event on the Commons terrace the year before so thought nothing of pointing out Montgomery's impeccable showbusiness connections. In fact, I assumed he would be delighted. So I was somewhat surprised when I arrived in the Commons on the day my article was published to come face to face with the former private secretary, who was puce with rage. Grabbing the lapels of my jacket, he began to shout so loudly that flecks of spittle formed at the corners of his mouth. Andrew Pierce has met several MPs and peers across the political spectrum who have been among the rudest and most unpleasant in any field 'I told my constituency officers the party wasn't happening this year because I didn't want them there,' he raged. 'They now think I'm a snooty liar. You've put me in an impossible position.' A string of four-letter expletives followed. Attempts by fellow MPs to calm him down seemed to make matters worse. There was no reasoning with him and, as his rage deepened, I made a decision: I legged it. But the surprisingly agile Montgomery gave chase, waving his fist in the air and shouting to any confused onlooker who would listen: 'Stop that man!' GEORGE FOULKES That wasn't the only time one of my scoops almost led to a thrashing. Around the same time, the bulbous-nosed Labour MP George Foulkes took grave exception to my report that he had been found face-down in a gutter after a scotch whisky reception. Lunging at me at a reception in The Reform Club – the famous home-from-home of Jules Verne's protagonist in Around The World In Eighty Days – he barked: 'I want a word with you, sonny.' Unfortunately, he was a little unsteady on his feet. He lunged too far, went flying and sent a table full of drinks glasses crashing on to the tiled floor. It made for an interesting follow-up. DAVID CAMERON In 1990, David Cameron left Andrew with an expensive lunch bill, where the wine alone was £75 – the equivalent of about £200 today – and impossible to get through on his expenses, but Andrew got his revenge years later My first unfortunate encounter with a future prime minister didn't come until 1990 when I had lunch with David Cameron, who was then a special adviser to chancellor Norman Lamont. Even then, I thought that he looked and sounded like a future Tory leader, oozing Old Etonian entitlement. He arrived at the restaurant, the trendy central London bistro Joe Allen, before I did – a vital time-keeping lesson that I've never forgotten. 'Hope you don't mind, old chap,' he crowed as I arrived. 'I've ordered the wine.' I didn't mind at all – until I was left with the bill. The wine alone was £75 – the equivalent of about £200 today – and impossible to get through on my expenses. Fortunately, I was able to wreak my revenge some years later when he was Leader of the Opposition. From my bird's eye view in the press gallery high above the Commons chamber, I noticed during one of his appearances that his hair was thinning on top. What did I do with this interesting nugget of information? Of course, I wrote about it – and dubbed him Friar Tuck. When we bumped into each other outside Parliament a few days later, he erupted. Forefinger stabbing the air, effing and blinding with his puffy cheeks turning blood red, he shouted: 'I'm so bloody furious with you, Pierce. You are – and always have been – a total c***.' And I thought politicians were supposed to have thick skins... ALAN CLARK Thatcher groupie Alan Clark, an unrepentant philanderer, lived in Saltwood Castle in Kent with his long-suffering wife Jane, picture together. Andrew wrote about the former defence minister's affair with a judge's wife and her two daughters Then there was the former defence minister and Thatcher groupie Alan Clark, an unrepentant philanderer, who lived in Saltwood Castle in Kent with his long-suffering wife Jane. After I wrote about his affair with a judge's wife and her two daughters – whom he referred to as the 'coven' in his diaries – he approached me in the Commons in 1994, when he was between seats. 'I gather you're Andrew Pierce,' he said somewhat pleasantly. 'You're a poxy prig. Do come to my home – but be warned, four knights stayed there the night before they went to Canterbury Cathedral to kill Archbishop Thomas Becket.' Needless to say, I never took him up on his kind offer. JOHN GUMMER After the widely-disliked environment secretary John Gummer survived yet another John Major Cabinet reshuffle in 1995, I decided to introduce myself. 'What is it the prime minister sees in you that eludes the rest of us?' I asked. He replied tartly: ' 'Journalism is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world and life seen in the newspapers another.' That's G. K. Chesterton, you oaf.' Looking me up and down, he added: 'As for you, you're in a different world altogether.' MICHAEL PORTILLO In 1996, Michael Portillo lost his seat by 1,443 votes. Could it have anything to do with a story Andrew wrote about the Conservative Association in his Enfield Southgate constituency and a McDonald's bid to take over the defence secretary's HQ, which outraged residents? Back in the summer of 1996, defence secretary Michael Portillo was the rising star of the Tory party and the frontrunner to replace flailing leader John Major after the election the following year. I picked up a story that the Conservative Association in his Enfield Southgate constituency had accepted an offer of £325,000 from McDonald's – £100,000 more than any other bidder – allowing the fast food giant to take over his HQ. Local residents were outraged. As was Portillo. I had never spoken to him before but he telephoned the Mail's news desk in a fury just before midnight. When we spoke, his tone was menacing: 'I know your editor, I know your proprietor. Think very carefully before you write any more about this.' Thanking him for his career advice, I went on to report that Portillo was chums with Geoffrey Tucker, who was one of the fast food chain's political consultants, and I also discovered that the main Conservative HQ in London would benefit to the tune of a £100,000 loan. The night of the 1997 election, his Labour rival Stephen Twigg called me to say he thought the McDonald's row would shave just 2,000 votes off Portillo's huge 15,000 majority. In fact, in one of the defining moments of Labour's election landslide victory, Portillo lost by 1,443 votes. ALASTAIR CAMPBELL Months before Labour's 1997 election win, a light-hearted exposé caused a stir – and led to Andrew's first encounter with Tony Blair's pugnacious all-powerful spin doctor, Alastair Campbell Enjoying better luck that election was, of course, Tony Blair, who won voters over with his suave speeches and mischievous smile. A little too mischievous as it turned out. Months before his win, he appeared on Des O'Connor's TV show and told the gripping story of how, as a schoolboy, he had managed to lose his father Leo at Newcastle train station while travelling back to Fettes College in Edinburgh – and stowed himself away on a plane to the Bahamas. The adventure could have come straight from the pages of a James Bond novel – the most famous fictional alumnus of Fettes. To put it mildly, I was sceptical. I managed to track down Blair's father, who was 73 at the time. He laughed out loud when I told him about the 'great escape' and replied that Blair had an over-active schoolboy imagination. My light-hearted exposé caused a stir – and led to my first encounter with Blair's pugnacious all-powerful spin doctor, Alastair Campbell. He marched into my office in Parliament and announced to the room: 'Pierce is finished as he has exploited Tony's father.' After many reassurances to confused onlookers that I had not taken advantage of an elderly man, I am, thankfully, still going strong almost three decades later. While Blair was far too canny to be rude to reporters, that encounter was typical of his henchman Campbell: brutal and coarse. PETER MANDELSON The other high priest of political spin, Peter Mandelson, never forgave me for a harmless story while he was campaigning to be the Labour MP in Hartlepool in the 1992 election. Standing in a fish and chip shop, with an incongruous Hartlepool FC football scarf tied tightly round his neck, he pointed behind the counter and asked: 'Can I have a tub of that delicious looking guacamole mousse?' Peter Mandelson never forgave Andrew Pierce for a harmless story he wrote while the high priest of political spin was campaigning to be the Labour MP in Hartlepool in the 1992 election To which the burly owner spluttered: 'It's bloody mushy peas.' It made an entertaining story – and the first of many calls from the Prince of Darkness demanding my dismissal. Now the ambassador to the US, he lives in Washington DC with his partner Reinaldo, whose relationship I revealed in the Sunday Express in 1998. Somewhat hypocritically, despite pushing for gay rights in public, Mandelson was mortified. He lobbied the proprietor, Labour peer Lord Hollick, not to run the story. When it was printed, he demanded my head (again) but failed. However, he did get the scalp of the editor, one Amanda Platell, now a star columnist on the Daily Mail and my very best friend. I was so outraged by her treatment I resigned my post the next morning. TED HEATH In Blackpool, at the Tory party conference in 1999, former prime minister Ted Heath said to Andrew: 'Who on earth invited you? I hope you're enjoying yourself because you won't be invited again' To dinner at the Tory party conference in Blackpool in 1999 with former prime minister Ted Heath, who hosted lavish soirées at the River House Hotel in Lancashire. The grand location meant Ted could avoid any contact with pesky Tory activists if he stayed in a mere conference hotel. But clearly it wasn't only the grassroots supporters he didn't want to see that season. Despite sitting feet from me, Heath pointedly ignored me throughout the dinner. Puzzled, I eventually said: 'Sir Edward, I'm Andrew Pierce from the...' 'I know exactly who you are,' he interrupted. 'Who on earth invited you? I hope you're enjoying yourself because you won't be invited again.' Thankfully, our curmudgeonly exchange didn't continue. About 30 minutes later, he fell into a deep sleep at the table and we were all asked to leave. BARONESS YOUNG I have been accused of many things by politicians but the abuse from Baroness (Janet) Young, the only woman to serve in Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet, was the most astonishing. Young had led the parliamentary campaign against Labour's Bill to lower the age of gay consent from 18 to 16 – which eventually passed in 2000. I spotted her in the House of Lords shortly after the historic vote and went to introduce myself. She was not impressed. 'Oh, it's you,' she said with disgust. 'You're the homosexual who pushed for an equal age of consent. Congratulations. You have enabled old predatory men to prey on young boys. I hope you are proud of yourself.' BORIS JOHNSON In 2007, when Andrew leaked that David Cameron had ordered Boris Johnson to run for Lord Mayor, he denied the story and said: 'Andrew Pierce is a miserable, simpering scuzzbucket' In 2007, I wrote that the then relatively unknown Boris Johnson was being ordered by Tory leader David Cameron to run for London mayor. He hotly denied it – I think. Much of what he shouted down the phone was in Latin so went over my head. But when the London Evening Standard seized on the story, he told them in plain English: 'Andrew Pierce is a miserable, simpering scuzzbucket.' Two weeks later it was confirmed that Boris would be the Tory candidate after all, in a race he went on to win. Boris, of course, is now one of my esteemed colleagues at the Daily Mail in a sign that no ill will or personality clashes last forever in Westminster. Sadly I cannot say the same for the 'scuzzbucket' jibe, which remained on my Wikipedia page for years.
Daily Mail
12 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Little Boats Crackdown! Members of criminal gangs in Britain who advertise migrant Channel crossings online could face 'five years in jail'
Criminal gangs who advertise small boat crossings across the English Channel or fake passports online could spend up to five years behind bars under new legislation. Ministers are looking to create a new offence under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill already going through Parliament in an attempt to crackdown on criminal gangs promoting Channel crossings on the Internet, The Mirror reports. Under the proposed law, offenders could receive a prison sentence of up to five years and a hefty fine. Assisting illegal migration is already a crime, but officials hope the changes will give more powers to police to disrupt criminal gangs. Around 80 percent of migrants arriving to the UK by small boats say they used social media to find someone associated with a criminal gang who could smuggle them into the country. According to the Home Office, many of those who make the perilous crossings across the Channel are sold a 'false narrative' about their ability to live and work in the UK. 'Selling the false promise of a safe journey to the UK and a life in this country – whether on or offline – simply to make money, is nothing short of immoral,' Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said. 'These criminals have no issue with leading migrants to life-threatening situations using brazen tactics on social media. We are determined to do everything we can to stop them – wherever they operate.' Ministers are looking to create a new offence under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill already going through Parliament The potential new measure comes the Government announced last week that members of people-smuggling gangs who send migrants across the Channel in flimsy boars will face financial sanctions. The new powers target smugglers and those who supply them with money and equipment. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the measures are 'the world's first sanctions regime targeted at gangs involved in people smuggling and driving irregular migration, as well as their enablers.' Those in breach of the rules can have UK assets seized, be barred from using British banks and be banned from entering Britain. The government said the new rules are authorised by existing sanctions legislation. British lawmakers won't get a chance to debate them until they return from a summer break in September. Keir Starmer has pledged to stop criminal gangs sending thousands of migrants each year on dangerous journeys across one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. A group of migrants run from the beach into the water to reach an inflatable dinghy to leave the coast of northern France in an attempt to cross the English Channel to reach Britain as tougher migration controls were announced, at the beach of Petit-Fort-Philippe in Gravelines, near Calais, France, July 17, A migrant tries to board a smuggler's inflatable dinghy in an attempt to cross the English Channel off the beach of Gravelines, northern France on July 29, 2025 The Prime Minister has said the crime gangs are a threat to global security and should be treated like terror networks. Some 37,000 people crossed the channel in 2024, and more than 22,000 so far in 2025 - an increase of about 50 percent from the same period last year. Dozens of people have died attempting the journey.
