“Most importantly, this law will not fulfill its promise to make kids safer online, and will, in fact, make Australian kids less safe on YouTube,” public policy manager Rachel Lord said in a statement.

“We’ve heard from parents and educators who share these concerns.”

Australia will from Dec 10 ban under-16s from a raft of the world’s most popular social media platforms and websites, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

YouTube, one of the most-visited websites in the world, was originally slated to escape the ban so children could watch educational videos.

But the Australian government changed tack in July, saying young users needed to be shielded from “predatory algorithms”.

YouTube said that all Australian users under 16 would be automatically signed out on Dec 10.

The firm would determine ages based on the ages listed in Google accounts used to sign up to YouTube.

Underage users could still visit the website without an account, but would lose access to many of YouTube’s features.

Lord said the “rushed regulation misunderstands our platform and the way young Australians use it”.

YouTube said young users would no longer be protected by “default wellbeing settings” and “safety filters built to protect them”.

“At YouTube, we believe in protecting kids in the digital world, not from the digital world,” said Lord.