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Comment by petepete | Hacker News Reader

> The ban will therefore include platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X.

> "We do not intend for messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal to be included in the social media ban."

YouTube is a bit of a surprise here, but I guess with Shorts they put themselves in the same category as Tiktok, etc.

There is this weird attempt to claim YouTube isn't social media from Google and others, but it's literally called "You Tube". It was designed as social media from the start, it's impossible to separate this without changing the name and everything about how it works except the films and series available to pay for.

I guess for me, when the term "social media" was coined, it was about friends, while YouTube was already more parasocial and more like short segments on broadcast TV (with at that time a comment section that seemed to promote nothing worth reading).

Things move on after perceptions have crystalised.

My problem with youtube is they mix everything in the same bucket. Kids watching educational content on the platform is obviously fine, but watching shorts for 3 hours isn't. Or worse, uploading shorts of their own.

They need to break shorts off in to it's own app and create a kids mode account that disables commenting and uploading.

It's called "YouTube" because if you want to, you can be your own broadcaster. Calling YouTube "social media" because anyone can contribute (although the vast, vast majority are just consumers) is like calling Fiver or Upwork or DoorDash or Uber "social media", because anyone can join and contribute.

It's like Twitter basically but with vlogs instead of microblogs. And now there's micro-vlogs too.

If "X" is social media then so is YouTube.

To add to this YouTube has just added a feature where if you share a link it tells the person who opens the link your profile name, which is doxxing people actively. And further attempt to make YouTube more like other social media.

YouTube allows parents to turn off shorts for their kids (if their kids are part of their family account). Unfortunately it doesn't seem possible to turn off shorts for oneself without resorting to browser extensions.

Yeah I don't think they've thought that through. YouTube hosts a mountain of educational content, e.g. the Khan Academy. That's now banned in the UK for under 16s.

There is also educational content on other sites

Not even 1% as much as on Youtube.

Maybe not all concentrated into one single site, most educational content on youtube is repackaged content from other sites.

It clearly hasn’t resulted in better educated children so doesn’t seem like a big loss. We have good free education with everything provided already. The idea that YouTube is required is silly.

I wonder if a ban on YouTube means a ban on kids watching YouTube or just having an account.

If it's the former, then many schools use YouTube for educational purposes and set their kids homework that involves watching it. My old school sent us YouTube videos to watch on WW2 during the lockdown.

If it's the latter, what happens when YouTube flags your IP as suspicious and demands you "sign in to confirm you're not a bot"?

I think YouTube is one of the more critical ones to ban. Yes it has educational content but it’s also full of absolute brain rot. I’ve seen a lot of “but how will people study for exams” arguments - the answer is the same way they always have. Books. Test scores aren’t exactly going up so the idea that YouTube is critical to school learning is nonsense.

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