FRANCE MOVES TO BAN SOCIAL MEDIA FOR UNDER-15s AS LAWMAKERS PASS BILL

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Agency Report

French lawmakers have approved a bill that would ban children under the age of 15 from using social media platforms, a move President Emmanuel Macron has championed as a way to protect young people from excessive screen time and its impact on mental health.

The lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, adopted the legislation early Tuesday after an overnight session, passing it by 130 votes to 21. The bill will now be sent to the Senate for consideration before it can become law.

Macron welcomed the vote, describing it as a “major step” in protecting French children and teenagers. France would become the second country to impose such restrictions, following Australia’s ban on social media use for under-16s adopted in December.

The proposed law would also introduce a ban on mobile phone use in high schools. Authorities aim to enforce the measures from the start of the 2026 school year for new social media accounts.

“The emotions of our children and teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated, whether by American platforms or Chinese algorithms,” Macron said in a video message broadcast over the weekend.

Former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who leads Macron’s Renaissance party in the National Assembly, said he hopes the Senate will approve the bill by mid-February, allowing the ban to take effect on September 1. He added that social media platforms would have until December 31 to deactivate existing accounts that fail to meet the age requirement.

Attal said the measure was not only about protecting adolescent mental health but also about resisting foreign influence. “France can be a pioneer in Europe. We can change the lives of our young people and their families, and perhaps the country’s independence,” he said.

France’s public health watchdog, ANSES, warned earlier this month that platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram have harmful effects on adolescents — particularly girls — including exposure to cyberbullying and violent content, although it said social media was not the sole cause of declining mental health.

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The legislation specifies that access to online social networking services will be prohibited for minors under 15, while excluding online encyclopedias and educational platforms. An effective age-verification system, currently being developed at the European level, will be required for enforcement.

The proposal has drawn criticism from some quarters. Hard-left lawmaker Arnaud Saint-Martin of France Unbowed (LFI) described the ban as “digital paternalism” and an overly simplistic response to the challenges posed by technology.

Meanwhile, nine child protection associations urged lawmakers to focus on holding social media platforms accountable rather than banning children outright.

France has already banned mobile phone use in middle schools since 2018. Former prime minister Elisabeth Borne expressed reservations about extending restrictions, saying enforcement of existing rules must first be ensured.

“It’s more complicated than that,” she told France 2. “We need to make sure the ban already in place is properly enforced.”