The Australian government has announced YouTube will be required to ensure account holders are at least 16 years old starting in December.

YouTube will be included in Australia's world-first social media ban for children 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.

The move comes a month after Australia's internet regulator urged the government to reverse a planned exemption for the video-sharing platform from its social media ban.