The world’s biggest video platform, YouTube, privately told the Albanese government it should be exempted from a world-first ban on social media for children because it already aims to protect them from harmful content.

Confidential emails obtained through a freedom of information request reveal how the Google-owned company justified the carve-out it received last November from the controversial ban that comes with threats of $50 million penalties for other companies that fail to keep users under 16 off their platforms.