France has become the first European Union nation to legally bar children under fifteen from social media, with mandatory age verification set to begin in January 2027. The measure, backed by President Macron and passed by both chambers of parliament, reflects a growing conviction among democratic governments that the digital commons must be bounded differently for the young. Yet as Australia's parallel experiment has already shown, the distance between a law's intention and its lived reality can be vast — and the deeper question of whether restriction alone can substitute for genuine inclusio