Paris —
French lawmakers on Tuesday passed a bill banning children under 15 from using social media, making it the first country in the European Union to introduce such an age limit.
Australia made history late last year when it introduced the first social media ban for under-16s. The UK government announced similar restrictions last month, which are expected to come into force next year. Spain, Greece and Denmark also plan to impose minimum age restrictions on social media use.
French lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in favor of the bill, which received strong support from French President Emmanuel Macron. He now plans to sign it into law.
After the vote, he thanked lawmakers for passing the bill and wrote, “Starting this year, social media will be banned for children under 15.”
“The brains of our children and teens are not for sale,” he said in a video message in January. “The emotions of our children and teens should not be sold or manipulated by American platforms or Chinese algorithms.”
President Macron had ordered the French government to quickly pass the bill through parliament, with the aim of passing it before the start of the new school year in September.
It’s not yet clear how social media sites verify users’ ages. Australia requires businesses to “take reasonable steps” to prevent minors from opening or maintaining accounts, and the French government has promised to introduce age restrictions to back up its laws.
Previous versions of the bill also included a ban on social media ads aimed at children, including those by influencers, and a proposal to require ads on social media platforms to carry a warning that they are “dangerous products intended for children under 15.” However, these plans did not make it into the final bill.
The new law will be enforced by Alcom, France’s audiovisual and digital communications regulator. It is expected to be applied to all major platforms.
According to Arcom, children aged 12 to 17 in France spend an average of 1 hour and 21 minutes a day on TikTok. Regulators say the platform’s recommendation algorithms tend to promote the most “extreme” content, exposing teens to a constant stream of anxiety-provoking and harmful videos.
Social media companies say they are already taking steps to protect children from certain types of content.
Earlier this year, the proposed ban was welcomed by many French parents.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Geraldine Delacroix, a mother of six, told CNN in March. “Right now we’re waiting to see how it works, but either way it’s better than nothing,” she added, noting that children could potentially bypass existing parental controls. “Even if we block them, they find a way around it,” she said.
In her work as a pediatrician, Delacroix has seen a growing distrust of smartphones and social media among patients’ families over the past decade. “People are nervous[about smartphones],” she says. “The atmosphere has really changed.”
Her daughter Ariane said she saw little downside to the ban, but wished it had been introduced sooner. “It was a little too late for young people my age, 13 and 14 years old,” she told CNN.
“We tend to say, ‘Okay, let’s just look at our phones for five or 10 minutes,’ and then we end up spending an hour or two on the phone because it’s so addictive,” she said.
Ariane, who participates in all major social networks, said that while they offered “quick and easy entertainment without much effort”, they offered little benefit to children her age.
Her older sister Gabrielle said she had access to Instagram and TikTok before her 10th birthday, well before the age limit of 13 for most social networks, and blamed the coronavirus-era lockdown for instilling bad habits of excessive smartphone use in her generation.
“Once you get used to it, you just keep using it,” she says.
Gabriel added that he has no doubt that children will find ways to get around the restrictions, and instead suggested that platforms should do more to filter dangerous content.
Ensuring effective age verification is a major challenge for countries considering age restrictions.
“A ban alone is not enough,” French Education Minister Edouard Jeffrey told lawmakers in January. “We can’t just restrict ourselves; we need to educate and suggest different ways of interacting.”
Katia Roux of Amnesty International France echoed similar sentiments on Tuesday. “The debate over banning social media for under-15s is legitimate,” she told CNN. “However, this measure is not enough to make digital platforms safe. Only a shift in social media companies’ business models can truly protect all users. First, addictive and manipulative features on the platforms must be banned.”
Across OECD countries in 2022, at least half of 15-year-olds in most countries used digital devices for more than 30 hours a week, including for in- and out-of-school learning activities.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned last week that “social media is not a toy” in a statement calling for “age-appropriate restrictions”.
“In Europe, those who develop a product are responsible for its safety. Car manufacturers must make their cars safe. We do not expect children to design their own seat belts. We do not expect parents to install airbags at home,” she wrote. “This is not a question of whether children have access to social media. The question is whether and when social media has access to children.”
In France, some opposition politicians opposed the bill early on, citing concerns about freedom of speech and access to useful online content. Some senators had proposed blacklisting certain social media platforms.
Neriya Waali, a teenager whose mother does not allow her to have her own smartphone, said the law could affect her access to educational videos.
“We don’t watch much TV anymore, and as a result, we don’t get as much information,” she said, adding that she and her friends prefer influencer videos. “But it’s still important for communication. Social networks are still important. Thanks to social networks, we can talk to our friends,” she said. “They entertain us and take our mind off things.”
This is not the first time France has restricted access to online materials. The ban on minors’ access to online pornography finally went into effect in 2025 after overcoming legal challenges. Users must provide proof of age.
