France Bans Social Media for Kids Under 15

French lawmakers have voted to ban social media for children under the age of 15. The legislation makes France the very first nation in the European Union to implement a social media ban of this scale, following Australia's similar policy that came into effect last year.

The new rules, which also ban mobile phones inside schools, won overwhelming support across both parliamentary houses. While educational and scientific hubs like online encyclopedias remain safe, major commercial platforms will be subject to strict age restrictions enforced by Arcom, the national digital communications watchdog.

President Emmanuel Macron championed the bill as a headline achievement for his final years in office, framing the policy as an urgent necessity to protect youth mental health from predatory screen time and algorithmic manipulation.

"The brains of our children and our teenagers are not for sale," Macron stated earlier this year. "The emotions of our children and our teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated, neither by American platforms nor by Chinese algorithms."

A Two-Phase Rollout

Assuming the law passes a final constitutional review, the restrictions will kick in across two distinct waves:

September 2026: Teenagers under 15 will no longer be permitted to open new social media accounts. Age verification tools approved by the national privacy regulator must be active for any newly created profile.
January 2027: The restriction expands to legacy users. Every person in France will be required to verify their age to retain existing accounts.

Addressing concerns over what happens to young people already online, Digital Minister Anne Le Hénanff clarified the government's stance. "If someone is under 15, the account will be closed," Le Hénanff confirmed, while adding that users' personal data would be protected.

Despite the government's insistence that safe age-checking tech is ready to go, critics are far from convinced. Opposition lawmakers on the left argued that the hasty law threatens digital anonymity, raises severe privacy risks, and will prove nearly impossible to enforce effectively.

Similar doubts are echoing internationally. Australian researchers point out that seven out of ten kids under 16 in Australia still found ways to access their profiles months after their own national ban took effect.

Human rights and digital advocates also argue that blocking accounts fails to address the core problem. Rights groups like Amnesty International warn that real safety will only happen when tech companies are forced to dismantle their addictively designed algorithms altogether.