SYDNEY, July 30 (Reuters) - Australia said on Wednesday

it will include Alphabet-owned YouTube in its

world-first ban on social media for teenagers, reversing an

earlier decision to exempt the video-sharing platform.

Australia's internet watchdog last month urged the

government to overturn the proposed exemption for YouTube after

its research found 37% of children aged 10 to 15 reported seeing

harmful content on the platform, the most of any social media

site.

Other social media companies such as Meta's

Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok had argued

an exemption for YouTube would be unfair.

"Social media has a social responsibility and there is no

doubt that Australian kids are being negatively impacted by

online platforms so I'm calling time on it," Prime Minister

Anthony Albanese said in a statement.

"Social media is doing social harm to our children, and I

want Australian parents to know that we have their backs."

Social media firms will be fined up to A$49.5 million ($32.2

million) from December if they break the law, which passed

through parliament in November.

A YouTube spokesperson said the company would consider next

steps and would continue to engage with the government.

"We share the government's goal of addressing and reducing

online harms. Our position remains clear: YouTube is a video

sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content,

increasingly viewed on TV screens. It's not social media," the

spokesperson said by email.

Online gaming, messaging apps, and health and education

sites will be excluded from the centre-left government's minimum

age rules as they pose fewer social media harms to teens under

16, or are regulated under different laws, Communications

Minister Anika Wells said.

"The rules are not a set and forget, they are a set and

support," Wells said.

($1 = 1.5363 Australian dollars)