Despite Australia's strict social media ban for minors, a YouTube exemption poses risks

Australia's government carved out an exemption for YouTube when it passed laws banning social media access for children under 16, but some mental health and extremism experts say the video-sharing website exposes them to addictive and harmful content. Australia will block video-sharing platforms TikTok and Snapchat, Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook and Elon Musk's X for minors by the end of 2025, forcing them to impose strict age restrictions on access or face hefty fines. At the same time, the government will keep Alphabet-owned YouTube open for all ages because it is a valuable educational tool and not "a core social media application".