French lawmakers pass bill to ban social media for under-15s

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - PARIS —French lawmakers have passed a bill that would ban social media use by under-15s, a move championed by President Emmanuel Macron as a way to protect children from excessive screen time.

The lower National Assembly adopted the text by a vote of 130 to 21 in a lengthy overnight session from Monday to Tuesday.

It will now go to the Senate, France's upper house, ahead of becoming law.

The French move is part of a growing trend of restricting social networks for children, triggered by increasing evidence of the damage they can cause to mental health. A similar law was passed in Australia late last year.

Macron hailed the vote as a "major step" to protect French children and teenagers in a post on X.

The legislation, which also provides for a ban on mobile phones in high schools, would make France the second country to take such a step following Australia's ban for under-16s in December.

As social media has grown, so has concern that too much screen time is harming child development and contributing to mental health problems.

"The emotions of our children and teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated, either by American platforms or Chinese algorithms," Macron said in a video broadcast on Saturday.

Last month, Macron said: "We cannot leave the mental and emotional health of our children in the hands of people whose sole purpose is to make money out of them."

Authorities want the measures to be enforced from the start of the 2026 school year for new accounts.

Former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who leads Macron's Renaissance party in the lower house, said he hoped the Senate would pass the bill by mid-February so that the ban could come into force on September 1.

He added that "social media platforms will then have until December 31 to deactivate existing accounts" that do not comply with the age limit.

In addition to combatting the impact of screens and social media on the mental health of young adolescents, Attal stressed that the measure would counter "a number of powers that, through social media platforms, want to colonise minds".

"France can be a pioneer in Europe in a month: we can change the lives of our young people and our families, and perhaps also change the destiny of our country in terms of independence," he said.

France's public health watchdog ANSES said this month that social media such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram had several detrimental effects on adolescents, particularly girls, though it was not the sole reason for their declining mental health.

The risks listed include cyberbullying and exposure to violent content.

The legislation stipulates that "access to an online social networking service provided by an online platform is prohibited for minors under the age of 15".

The draft bill excludes online encyclopedias and educational platforms.

Laure Miller, an MP behind the bill, told Le Monde: "With this law we will set down a clear limit in society."

"We are saying something very simple: social networks are not harmless," she added.

"These networks promised to bring people together. They pulled them apart. They promised to inform. They saturated us with information. They promised to entertain. They shut people away."

Under the new text, the state media regulator would draw up a list of social media networks that are deemed harmful. These would be simply banned for under 15-year-olds.

A separate list of supposedly less harmful sites would be accessible, but only with explicit parental approval.

Another clause would ban the use of mobile telephones in senior schools (lycées). The ban is already in effect in junior and middle schools.

If the law is passed, France will need to agree on the mechanism for age-verification. A system is already in place that requires over 18 year-olds to prove their age when accessing online pornography.

In Europe, Denmark, Greece, Spain and Ireland are also considering following the Australian example. Earlier this month, the UK government launched a consultation on banning social media for under 16s.

The basis of the proposed French law is a text drawn up late last year by Miller, who chaired a parliamentary committee enquiry into the psychological effects of TikTok and other networks.

Separately, the government was told to draw up its own legislation, after Macron decided to make the issue a centrepiece of his last year in office.

The bill is expected to pass before the Senate in the next month. Macron said he had asked the government of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to use a fast-track procedure to get the legislation on the books by September. — Agencies

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