At the risk of sounding like a dinosaur, today I'm pondering two significant questions. Firstly "is YouTube in any way harmful to children?" and secondly "does Albo have a point?" The mere fact that the Australian government is currently including YouTube in the proposed social media ban, has made many musicians stop and think. As a content creator myself, and having been uploading videos on YouTube since 2008 I, like many other musicians have skin in the game, and stand to lose out if the plan goes ahead.
Despite this inconvenient truth, I personally feel the need to research what is behind the government's decision based on objective facts. Facts, not from what is currently available in the partisan press; but from well-researched, peer-reviewed academic studies. The type of studies that no doubt a Prime Minister such as Anthony Albanese will have readily available. If there is any credence to YouTube being included in the ban, then I want to see the receipts, and not be swayed by all the emotionally charged rhetoric I've been reading online.
I read amongst these discussions the use of pejorative terms like "nanny state" and even quotes cited from dubious politicians pursuing their own agenda. Surely one of the major responsibilities of any upstanding government is to protect the vulnerable, and if there is any evidence that You Tube poses harm to children then they are duty bound to act.
I say to the content creators who are concerned about loss of income, perhaps it's time that Google/YouTube started paying us directly for our content, instead of dishing out advertising revenue ad infinitum. In my opinion, encouraging content creators to focus on numbers to make a living has created a platform that is rapidly declining in both quality and originality.
There is an awful lot of repetition of so-called trending content which has too often got nothing to do with art and very little to do with education. Although production qualities have significantly improved over the years, in my experience quality control over what is deemed as educational appears to be sadly lacking.
Perhaps the musicians who create music videos for educational purposes would be better served going outside YouTube (like a certain Australian duo featuring a tiger have done) to provide their educational content independent of the constraints of the almighty YouTube algorithm. Or better still, maybe consider a career in the teaching profession. There are schools the world over crying out for educators. Trust me, and I speak with some authority on this, having been a state school teacher for over twenty years, you will find it to be the most rewarding career you could ever choose.
So I'm off to do my own research, and for those playing along, I'll let you know what I discover in due course. If my research definitively proves that YouTube is in no way harmful to children, then I can assure you, I will be as relieved as everyone else.
