The government will adopt world-first rules banning children under 16 from social media, creating a flashpoint with Donald Trump’s powerful ally Elon Musk and drawing criticism from Instagram owner Meta and Facebook.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said social media companies would have a year before the rules come into force to give them time to determine how to prevent children from signing up, under penalty of heavy fines. Google’s popular video-sharing site YouTube was also surprisingly named as potentially being subject to the ban.

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