The government will enact world-first rules to ban children under 16 from accessing social media, setting up an early flashpoint with powerful Donald Trump ally Elon Musk, and drawing criticism from Instagram and Facebook owner Meta.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said social media companies would have a year before the rules came in to give them time to work out how to stop children signing up, or face big fines. Google’s popular video sharing site YouTube was also surprisingly named as potentially being subject to the ban.