French lawmakers voted Tuesday to ban social media use for children under the age of 15, making it the first country in the European Union to introduce such an age limit.
Australia made history late last year when it implemented the first ban on social media for under-16s. The British government announced similar restrictions last month, expected to come into effect next year. Spain, Greece and Denmark are also planning to impose minimum age limits for social media use.
French lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in favor of the bill, which was strongly backed by France’s President Emmanuel Macron. He will now sign it into law.
“Social media will be banned for children under 15 starting this school year,” he posted on X after the vote as he thanked lawmakers for passing the bill.
“The brains of our children and our teenagers are not for sale,” he had said in a video message in January. “The emotions of our children and our teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated, neither by American platforms nor by Chinese algorithms.”
Macron had ordered the French government to expedite the bill’s passage through parliament, with the aim of having legislation in place for the beginning of the new next school year in September.
It is not yet clear how the social media sites will verify users’ ages. Australia requires companies to “take reasonable steps” to prevent underage children from opening or keeping accounts, and the French government has promised to implement age controls to back up the law.
Earlier versions of the legislation also included proposals for a ban on advertising promoting social media to children, including by influencers, and to require advertisements for social media platforms to carry the warning: “Dangerous products for children under 15.” However, these plans did not make it into the final bill.
The new law will be enforced by Arcom, France’s audiovisual and digital communications regulator. It is expected to apply to all the major platforms.
According to Arcom, children aged 12 to 17 in France spend an average of 1 hour and 21 minutes a day on TikTok. The regulator says the platform’s recommendation algorithm tends to promote the most “extreme” content, exposing teenagers to a continuous stream of anxiety-inducing or otherwise harmful videos.
Social media companies say they already take steps to protect children from some kinds of content.
Across OECD countries in 2022, at least half of 15-year-olds in most countries spent 30 hours or more per week on digital devices, including learning activities in or out of school.
Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said warned that “social media is not a toy,” in a statement calling for “age-appropriate restrictions.”
“In Europe, whoever develops a product is responsible for its safety. Car manufacturers must make their vehicles safe. We do not expect children to design their own seatbelts. We do not expect parents to fit airbags at home,” she wrote. “This is not about whether children can access social media. It is about whether and when social media can access our children.”
In France, some opposition lawmakers opposed the bill at an earlier stage over concerns about free speech and access to informative online content. Some senators had proposed a blacklist of certain social media platforms.
This is not the first time France has restricted access to online material. A ban on access to online pornography for minors overcame legal challenges to finally come into effect in 2025. It requires users to provide proof of age. (CNN)
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