TikTok, Meta bristle at Australia’s plan to exempt YouTube from social media ban

Australia has proposed an exemption from its landmark social media ban so that children can use YouTube for school

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A student in Melbourne, Australia, looks at her mobile phone showing social media applications. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:12am, 5 Mar 2025

Australia’s plan to exempt YouTube from a world-leading teen social media ban is “illogical” and a “mockery”, rival tech giants Meta and TikTok said on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last year unveiled landmark laws that will ban under-16s from social media by the end of 2025.

While popular platforms such as Facebook, TikTok and Instagram face heavy fines for flouting the laws, Australia has proposed an exemption so children can use YouTube for school.

TikTok’s Australian policy director Ella Woods-Joyce said YouTube had been handed a “sweetheart deal” that gave it an unfair advantage.

The logos for social media apps including TikTok, Facebook and Instagram are seen on a smartphone. Photo: Dreamstime/TNS

“Handing one major social media platform a sweetheart deal of this nature – while subjecting every other platform in Australia to stringent compliance obligations – would be illogical, anticompetitive, and shortsighted,” Woods-Joyce said.

“The government’s arguments citing unique educative value do not survive even the most cursory of closer examinations,” she added in a submission to a government agency released on Wednesday.