Most Australian children now tend to use streaming video platforms to watch television “on demand” from extensive catalogues, many of which are mediated by algorithmic curation. 

This report outlines findings from a study conducted with Australian children aged 7-9 and their parents to determine how they use and find content on streaming platforms, their levels of technical fluency with these platforms, and whether they gravitate towards, are able to find, and are culturally literate with Australian content on these platforms.

The research found that Australian content is difficult for children to find and identify on streaming video platforms. It found that US-based global platform Netflix is the go-to “default” platform for children, setting the norm and standard for the streaming video experience from their perspective. Video sharing platform YouTube was also very popular with children but a site of child and parent tension. The findings highlight how the popularity of these two US-based global platforms amongst children has multilayered implications for local content discoverability.

The research found that children associate the broadcast video on demand platforms of the national broadcaster, the ABC, with Australian content. These platforms were the third most popular choice amongst children. A key obstacle however for local providers like the ABC is that children value the personalised algorithmic recommendation systems of their “default” and “go-to” platforms, Netflix and YouTube. Disney+ tends to be used for special event family co-viewing – such as movie nights – rather than being used by children for routine daily viewing.

The report outlines how together, this evidence points to the need for:

• a focus on discoverability in local content regulation for streaming platforms
• clearer labelling and/or organisation of Australian content on steaming platforms to better support discoverability for child viewers
• literacy programs for both children and parents around the role of algorithmic curation in children’s viewing choices and habits
• ongoing policy considerations, including around the classification of content and user age limits, around video sharing platforms like YouTube that are popular with children.