Labor reverses earlier decision to exempt Google-owned platform from national social media youth ban in move communications minister says will make ‘positive difference’
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Children will be banned from having YouTube accounts from December, with the federal government backflipping on an earlier decision to exempt the video platform from the national under-16s social media restrictions.
The decision, to be confirmed by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the communications minister, Anika Wells, on Wednesday, is likely to set off a furious reaction from the Google-owned YouTube, which will hold a major event for politicians in Parliament House on Wednesday night.
YouTube argued it operated differently to other platforms and had been given an exemption to the world-leading under-16s social media ban by the former communications minister Michelle Rowland. But newly installed minister Wells has taken advice from the eSafety commissioner that the video platform should be included in the rules as it poses a threat to young people.
