YouTube has published a new study that examines how young audiences utilize YouTube for education, aside from entertainment, which could prove to be a crucial step in the platform’s broader effort to avoid restriction under new age access laws.
The report, conducted in partnership with youth consultancy Livity, incorporates feedback from over 7,000 young people aged 13-18 from seven countries across Europe, and explores how they use digital platforms to learn.
As per YouTube:
“Of those surveyed, 74% said that they watched videos on YouTube to learn something new for school, while 71% said they watched videos on YouTube to learn something new for fun outside of school.”
The data underlines YouTube’s value beyond entertainment, with many youngsters, parents and teachers turning to the app to glean more insight into a broad range of subjects.
The report also looks at how parents manage their kids’ digital access, and limit overuse.
In addition to this, YouTube has also referred to a recent report by Oxford Economics, which shows that parents and teachers across all EU countries use YouTube as a key resource to help children learn.
“84% of teachers surveyed used YouTube content in their lessons or assignments, while 80% of parents who use YouTube believe the platform offers quality content for learning and entertainment.”
The data highlights YouTube expanding value beyond just entertainment, which, as noted, could end up playing a key role in helping the platform avoid regulation under new teen access laws.
Several nations are currently considering new restrictions on when young users should be able to access social media, including France, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Norway and Australia. All of these new proposals would limit teens under a certain age from logging onto social media sites, with that age limit being (in general) around 15 or 16.
In Australia, which is close to rolling out its teen social media access restrictions, YouTube has argued that its educational benefits should mean that it’s exempt from any change in access, which had initially seen it avoid mention in the proposal. But in July, the Australian government changed its mind, and re-added YouTube to the broader social media access limit, which will see the platform cut off from users under the age of 16.
YouTube is still trying to argue its case, and several examples have been put forward to highlight the app’s value from an educational standpoint. But thus far, it remains in the firing line of the new restriction.
Which is a battle that YouTube’s going to have to undertake over and over again as more regions look to implement similar, which is why it’s now seeking to highlight its benefits in this respect.
Will that work to keep the regulators off YouTube’s back?
Given its usage, it seems unlikely to be exempt, but maybe, if YouTube can showcase its benefits over its risks, that could lessen the impact of this new shift.
You can check out highlights from YouTube’s “Future Report” here.
