YouTube will be included in Australia's social media ban for children after all

YouTube will be included in Australia's social media ban for children under 16, as reported by Bloomberg. The country's Labor government said that the site will be subject to the same rules as other leading platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X when the legislation goes into effect this December.

Australia had planned to exempt YouTube from the forthcoming social media ban, on the grounds that it's an educational tool. This irked other platforms, with Meta and TikTok urging the country's government to backtrack on the exclusion.

This move didn't sit too well with YouTube and parent company Alphabet. A company spokesperson told CNN that this decision “reverses a clear, public commitment” from the government to treat the platform as an educational tool. YouTube Kids isn't included in the ban because it doesn't allow users to upload videos or comment.

The government said ...