Confusion reigns as department disavows Youtube age ban exemption

The issue of a Youtube exemption from the under-16 social media ban has been handballed to the next communications minister in a departmental letter to digital platforms.

The letter from the Communications Department, first reported in Capital Brief, asserts that no social media platform has yet been exempted from the requirement to ban under-16s because the necessary rules have not yet been made.

(Midjourney)

This apparently contradicts reassurances from current Communications Minister Michelle Rowland to Google that Youtube would not be within scope. It also muddies an already confused situation where the government has signalled both that Youtube is unaffected and that the exemption decision has not yet been made.