Australia bans YouTube for children under 16

From December 2025, children under the age of 16 in Australia will be banned from creating accounts on YouTube. The platform has been officially added to the list of social networks that are required to verify the age of users. This decision was part of a large-scale fight against the negative impact of social networks on the mental and physical health of adolescents.

The decision of the Australian government was a logical continuation of the law passed in November 2024, which completely prohibits children under the age of 16 from using Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and X. Now YouTube is added to this list.

Communications Minister Anika Wells emphasized: “Four out of ten children in Australia say that their last harmful experience was on YouTube.” In her opinion, the government simply has no right to ignore such evidence, even despite legal threats from the tech giants.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also clearly outlined the goal: “We want kids to get off their gadgets and onto the football fields and tennis courts. We want them to have real experiences, not virtual addictions.”

YouTube was previously not included in the list of platforms with age verification, as it was positioned as “a video platform, not a social network.” This is what a YouTube representative refers to, stating that the service “is not a social network,” but only a video library that is increasingly viewed on TVs.

Despite this, the Australian government has identified YouTube as a socially oriented platform that has a direct impact on the behavior of minors. In response, YouTube promised to review its position and continue the dialogue with the authorities.

The world is closely following this initiative. Norway is considering a similar ban for persons under 15, and France and Denmark are advocating for a single regulation at the EU level. The UK has yet to make a decision, but is also discussing age restrictions. Australia has become the first major democracy to introduce strict age restrictions on YouTube, effectively acknowledging it as part of the problem, not the exception. It sends a signal to the industry that the era of unsupervised digital childhood is coming to an end.

Such restrictions are not an attempt to isolate children from the internet, but to protect their psyche, self-esteem and emotional development. And while tech companies can challenge these decisions, the political will of governments is increasingly trumping algorithms.