French lawmakers were on Monday poised to decide on a far-reaching proposal that would restrict access to social media for children under the age of 15, marking a significant escalation in France’s long-running effort to regulate digital exposure among minors.
The draft legislation, championed by President Emmanuel Macron and sponsored by centrist lawmakers, is scheduled for examination in the National Assembly from 4:00 pm (1500 GMT). Barring unexpected opposition, it is expected to pass the lower house before proceeding to the Senate for further consideration.
At the core of the bill is a clear prohibition: “access to an online social networking service provided by an online platform is prohibited for minors under the age of 15.” Online encyclopaedias and educational directories are expressly excluded from the restriction. The legislation also proposes a ban on mobile phone use in high schools, extending France’s existing school-based controls on personal devices.
The initiative follows Australia’s decision in December to ban social media for under-16s, a move widely described as the first of its kind globally and one that has intensified international debate on the responsibilities of governments and technology companies toward children’s online safety.
President Macron has framed the proposed law as a protective measure against commercial and geopolitical manipulation of young users. “The emotions of our children and teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated, either by American platforms or Chinese algorithms,” he said in a video broadcast on Saturday.
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Concerns over children’s screen time and mental health have been growing for more than a decade, mirroring the rapid global expansion of social media platforms. In France, the debate has been shaped by earlier regulatory steps, including the 2018 law that banned mobile phones in “colleges” — middle schools attended by children aged 11 to 15 — unless explicitly authorised for educational purposes. That policy was introduced amid worries about classroom distraction, cyberbullying and the impact of constant connectivity on learning.
The current bill seeks to go further by directly targeting access to social networking services. Authorities have signalled an intention to move swiftly. Measures would apply to new accounts from the start of the 2026 school year. Gabriel Attal, a former prime minister who now leads lawmakers from Macron’s Renaissance party in the National Assembly, said he hoped the Senate would adopt the bill by mid-February.
“This means that in a month’s time, it could be adopted and that on September 1, the ban will come into force for new accounts,” Attal said on Monday. He added that “social media platforms will then have until December 31 to deactivate existing accounts” that do not meet the age requirement.
Beyond public health concerns, Attal argued that the legislation carries broader implications for national autonomy. The measure, he said, would help counter “a number of powers that, through social media platforms, want to colonise minds,” adding that France could “be a pioneer in Europe” by acting decisively on the issue.
France’s public health watchdog, ANSES, has previously raised alarms about the effects of social media use on adolescents. In a report released this month, the agency said platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram have “numerous detrimental effects” on young people, particularly girls, even if they are not the sole cause of declining mental health. The risks identified include cyberbullying, exposure to violent or harmful content, and pressures linked to self-image and online validation.
Despite the momentum behind the bill, practical and political questions remain. Effective enforcement will depend on the development of a reliable age-verification system, an issue that French authorities say is being addressed at the European level as part of wider discussions on digital regulation and data protection.
There is also caution within government ranks. Former prime minister Elisabeth Borne expressed reservations about extending device bans in schools, arguing that implementation challenges must be resolved first. “It’s more complicated than that,” she said in comments broadcast on France 2. “We first need to make sure that the ban is properly enforced in middle schools.”
AFP
