Author: Catherine Page Jeffery, Lecturer in Media and Communications, University of Sydney

When the Australian government passed legislation in November last year banning young people under 16 from social media, it included exemptions for platforms “that are primarily for the purposes of education and health support”. One such platform was YouTube. The government is currently conducting private consultations with the tech industry over how the social media ban – which won’t come into effect until at least December this year – will work, and the decision to exempt YouTube. Meta and TikTok have criticised the exemption. These tech giants have pointed to research which shows YouTube is the most popular social media…