YouTube roped into Labor’s social media ban for under 16s

Communications Minister Anika Wells will announce YouTube’s inclusion in Labor’s social media ban for under-16s, reversing a prior exemption and paving the platform to threaten a High Court challenge.

YouTube will be scooped up in Labor’s impending social media ban on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

YouTube will be roped into Labor’s impending social media ban for children, reversing a previous commitment to exempt the video-sharing platform and paving the way for a potential High Court challenge by the Google-owned tech giant.

The widely anticipated decision to capture YouTube will be formally unveiled by Communications Minister Anika Wells on Wednesday, after she received advice from the eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant last month that recommended the platform be included in the ban, which is designed to limit children’s exposure to harmful content.

Under the ban, which is slated to take effect in December, YouTube – along with TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Meta subsidiaries Instagram and Facebook – will be required to “take reasonable steps to prevent persons under 16 years of age from creating or holding an ­account”.

Communications Minister Anika Wells will unveil YouTube’s inclusion in the impending social media ban on Wednesday. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

Children under 16 will still be able to use YouTube in a logged-out state, but they won’t be permitted to create accounts – limiting access to age-inappropriate content, disabling comments, preventing video uploads, and stopping personalised video recommendations.

The legislation, which passed parliament in late 2024, is among the most stringent crackdowns on social media companies globally, and will impose fines worth almost $50m against platforms that contravene the ban.

In a statement, Ms Wells said the decision to exclude YouTube would afford parents “peace of mind” while reducing the “persuasive and pervasive” pull of ­social media.

“There is no one perfect solution when it comes to keeping young Australians safer online – but the social media minimum age will make a significantly positive difference to their wellbeing,” she said.

The decision overturns an exemption previously granted to the platform by former communications minister Michele Rowland, who had argued YouTube served an important role in providing young people with access to education and health resources, despite its similarities to other social media platforms.

Ms Rowland’s exemption drew the ire of rival platforms and the eSafety Commissioner, with the latter arguing YouTube hosted the online harms the impending social media ban was intended to address.

“Given the known risk of harms on YouTube, the similarity of its functionality to other online ser­vices, and without sufficient evidence demonstrating YouTube predominantly provides beneficial experiences for children under 16, providing a specific carve-out for YouTube appears to be inconsistent with the purposes of the act,” Ms Inman Grant’s advice read.

YouTube has argued against its inclusion in the ban, saying it is not a social media, but rather a video-sharing site that hosts educational and health-related content, and has accused the commissioner of providing “inconsistent and contradictory” advice to the government.

The impending ban, YouTube said, had passed federal parliament with bipartisan backing under the guise that it would be exempted, and would also stop the application of built-in protections for children which are only available to logged-in users.

In a last ditch attempt to sway Ms Wells, YouTube last week threatened a potential High Court challenge to the impending ban, arguing the platform’s inclusion amounted to an “impermissible fetter on the implied constitutional freedom of political communication”.

The Google subsidiary claimed that barring those aged under 16 from holding an account would prevent young adults from being able to “contribute to political communication by posting videos on YouTube and by making comments on those videos”.

Ms Wells will also announce new rules on Wednesday outlining which types of sites will be exempt from the ban, including online gaming platforms, messaging apps, and health and education services. These sites will need to apply to the eSafety Commission to confirm their exemption.