Australia’s teen social media ban pushes content creators to look abroad

By Christine Chen

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia is where YouTube star Jordan Barclay was born, went to school and at age 23 founded a $50 million company producing gaming content for 23 million subscribers.

Now, with the world’s first social media ban on Australian children under 16 coming into force on December 10, he is considering leaving his Melbourne studio and moving abroad.

“We’re going to move abroad because that’s where the money is going to be,” said Barclay, who has seven YouTube channels including EYstreem, Chip and Milo and Firelight.

“We can’t continue doing business if advertisers leave Australia.”

Nine participants interviewed by Reuters in Australia’s social media industry, estimated to generate annual revenue of A$9 billion ($5.82 billion), did not put a dollar figure on the impact of the ban but acknowledged it could lead to a decline in advertisers and viewership.

Social media researcher Susan Grantham from Griffith University said YouTubers, who receive 55% of advertising revenue and 18 Australian cents per 1000 views, will be most affected by this situation.

“If this is a clean sweep and all these accounts disappear immediately, it will hurt the influencer economy.”

The law requires companies to block the accounts of more than one million people under the cut-off age and penalize “systemic breaches” with up to A$49.5 million.

Although teens can still watch YouTube without an account, the site’s algorithm will fail to direct traffic to popular posts, reducing views.

Likewise, creators on YouTube, TikTok and Meta Instagram may lose earnings through promotions if their follower numbers drop, Grantham said.

Stephanie Scicchitano, managing director of Sydney-based talent agency Born ‍Bred Talent, said advertisers were also nervous about campaigns targeting younger audiences.

SPONSORSHIP AGREEMENTS ARE DECREASING AS THE BAN DATE IS APPROACHING

Barclay’s company, Spawnpoint Media, sells advertising to companies such as Lego and Microsoft, but said customers were losing interest in sponsorship deals as the ban approached.

“They worry about what the ban might mean later,” he said. “If it expands, if it grows… it would make sense for us to invest abroad rather than here.”

He stated that the USA may also be among his options, pointing to more favorable laws and government support in such markets.

Some creators are already leaving to avoid the restrictions, such as the Empire Family, who told followers in October they were moving to Britain.

Crystal Abidin, director of the Expressive Ethnography Research Lab, said the careers of those who produce content featuring children under 16, such as family vloggers and child influencers, are particularly at risk.

“They agree that it was an easy decision to migrate to continue,” he said.

“Any negative impact on revenue is going to hurt,” said Tina and Mark Harris, children’s musicians whose Lah-Lah YouTube channel has 1.4 million subscribers.

CONCERN ABOUT PERMANENT REPUTATION DAMAGE

But their real concern was the permanent reputational damage caused by the government’s revelation about the harm YouTube was doing to children.

“Parents will be nervous and will stay away from YouTube en masse,” Mark Harris said.

“Maybe this is an exaggeration, we don’t know.”

Alphabet-owned YouTube, which was initially exempt from the ban, was later added at the urging of Australia’s internet regulator; This regulation noted that 37% of minors reported seeing harmful content on YouTube, the worst case scenario for a platform.

Shannon Jones, who runs Australia’s largest YouTube channel Bounce Patrol, which has more than 33 million subscribers, said the ban “does a disservice” to creators of high-quality content aimed at children.

Byron Bay creator Junpei Zaki, 28, whose output comes mostly from interactions with 22 million followers on TikTok and YouTube, expects the ban to cause a “guaranteed drop” in likes and comments from Australia.

“It feels like… I’m ignoring my Australian audience that brought me here because they can’t engage.”

ENLARGED STRIKING FOR SMALL MAKERS

Zaki estimates he will lose 100,000 followers as a result of the ban, a disruption to his global reach, but warned that smaller creators with local audiences will be more affected.

Dimi Heryxlim, the 15-year-old owner of the House of Lim food stall in Sydney’s west, has built a following by posting vlogs of her routine running the kitchen after school.

He said losing access to his TikTok and Instagram accounts “would be a bad thing” because some customers recognize him from his videos, but he plans to return as soon as he turns 16.

“‌If I don’t get my account back, I’ll get a new account and start from scratch,” Heryxlim said.

($1 = ‌1.5475 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Byron Kaye and Clarence Fernandez)