France’s National Assembly has endorsed a bill to prohibit social media use by children under 15, a measure strongly supported by President Emmanuel Macron.
Deputies approved key elements after an overnight session on Monday, voting 116 to 23 in favour. The legislation now moves to the Senate. If enacted, platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok would be inaccessible to under-15s.
France’s media regulator Arcom would ban high-risk networks outright, while lower-risk ones require parental consent. Mobile phone bans would extend to upper secondary schools (lycées), building on existing rules.
Macron hailed it as a “major step” online, urging swift action “so that this ban takes effect as early as next school year” from 1 September. “Our children’s brains are not for sale,” he added.
MP Laure Miller, who led the charge, 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,” Miller 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.”
Macron warned last month, “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.”
The move follows Australia’s under-16 ban and inspires Europe, with the UK consulting on under-16 limits. Stemming from Miller’s inquiry, it sidesteps a failed 2023 law via fast-track procedures amid Macron’s push in a hung parliament.