teens in Australia are facing a YouTube ban.

Live from the UK, this is the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service.

I'm Leanna Byrne.

So Australia is expanding its second plan, its planned social media ban for children under 16 to include YouTube accounts.

The platform was originally set to be exempt from the restrictions,

but will now be

limited alongside TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and Snapchat from December. It comes as the UK's

media regulator says YouTube is now Britain's second most watched media service behind only the BBC.

Report from Offcom says YouTube was the most popular platform for children aged 4 to 15.

The BBC's Katie Silver has more on the Australian government's decision.

This ban is due to come into force in December and it's part of a wider ban against many social media platforms.

Previously, of course, YouTube had been exempted, but that decision has been

reversed. That's despite the company threatening legal actions. We've heard from Australia's

communications minister, Annika Wells, who said that young people need to be protected from

predatory algorithms, and she said that we can't control the ocean, but we can police the sharks. The interesting thing about

this law is that enforcement of it is going to be down to the social media giants themselves.

The bans are very, very hefty in the millions of dollars. And so if they don't find ways

of preventing that circumnavigation, they potentially face repercussions. So, you know, if users can find ways around that,

it's going to be on the social media giants then to potentially pay the bill. Now, one of the

exemptions on this is YouTube Kids, which is, of course, a slightly different platform within

YouTube and under 16s will still be able to use that. It does have tighter controls,

although it must be said, currently YouTube Kids doesn't distinguish between

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