The Australian government has announced that YouTube will be included in new legislation that bans children under the age of 16 from using social media.

YouTube will be included in Australia's world-first social media ban for children under 16, after the government ditched a previous exemption for the platform. The video sharing site was set to be excluded from the ban - which will limit TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and Snapchat and is due to start in December.

Australia said on Wednesday it will add YouTube to sites covered by its world-first ban on social media for teenagers, reversing an earlier decision to exempt the Alphabet-owned video-sharing site and potentially setting up a legal challenge.