SYDNEY: Australia said on Wednesday it will include Alphabet-owned YouTube in its world-first ban on social media for teenagers, reversing an earlier decision to exempt the video-sharing platform. Australia’s Internet watchdog last month urged the government to overturn the proposed exemption for YouTube after its research found 37 percent of children aged 10 to 15 reported seeing harmful content on the platform, the most of any social media site. Other social media companies such as Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok had argued an exemption for YouTube would be unfair.

Labor reverses earlier decision to exempt Google-owned platform from national social media youth ban in move communications minister says will make ‘positive difference’

The Australian government says the world-first ban is aimed at protecting youth from online harm.