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France passes law banning social media use for under-15s

2026-07-22 07:40:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

France's parliament has passed a law to ban social media for people under 15 from January 2027, making it the first European country to block young people from platforms.

The law means everyone in France must verify their age to access social media and comes at a time when the UK and EU are developing their borders in response to concerns about children's mental health.

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the move, which he had pledged to introduce to mark the end of his decade in office.

While skeptics have questioned the law's viability, the government has insisted that online tools to put age checks in place are effective and secure.

Both the French Senate and the National Assembly approved the ban on Tuesday, despite criticism from some leftists.

It will be implemented in two phases:

From September, people under 15 will not be able to open accounts and age verification will be required for all new accounts.

In January 2027, this rule will apply to all existing accounts - meaning everyone in France will have to prove they are over 15 years old to use social media.

Once the ban comes into effect, social media platforms will have to use age verification tools approved by the French privacy regulator, according to the Reuters news agency.

But concerns have been raised about privacy, the effectiveness of age verification tools, the risks of them being bypassed by young people and the speed with which the ban was drafted and implemented, Agence France Presse reports.

French Digital Affairs Minister Anne Le Hénanff defended the speed of implementing the law ahead of the vote, "because age verification tools already exist," the agency added.

France is the second country to introduce a ban, after Australia.

Despite Australia banning under-16s from social media in December, it is widely acknowledged that many continue to use these platforms.

In March, the Australian Electronic Safety Commission reported that seven out of 10 children under 16 who had a social media account before the ban still had "some access".

Given this, Professor of Internet Studies at Curtin University in Western Australia, Tama Leaver, told the BBC that the ban has "failed" in its technical goals.

But, he says, this has successfully shown that a ban "can be done", although he classifies it as "a small experiment".

One lesson other countries can learn from its example is that "young people need to be part of this conversation" so that a ban is "done with them" and not "at them."

Leaver said France's ban may have a higher chance of succeeding because of the requirement that each person verify their age, but it would also increase privacy risks.

Other risks of the ban include pushing young people towards less regulated online spaces, reducing their news consumption and their political empowerment, he added.

Legislation restricting young people's access to social media has spread rapidly across Europe in recent months.

In June, former British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced that under-16s in the UK would be banned from using social media from January 2027. An optional midnight curfew for UK teenagers aged 16 and 17 was also announced.

In May, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed a "social media delay" for children in Europe and said new legislation could be presented within months./ CNA