France's National Assembly backs ban on social media for under-15s

On Monday, France's National Assembly voted to ban children under 15 from social media platforms, moving the country toward one of the world's strictest digital regulations for minors. The vote was decisive: 116 lawmakers in favor, 23 opposed. The bill now advances to the Senate before returning to the lower house for final approval, but the direction is clear. President Emmanuel Macron is pushing hard for implementation by September, when the new school year begins, and he is explicitly modeling France's approach on Australia's ban, which took effect in December and has already become a reference point for governments worldwide.

The legislation targets not just standalone social networks but also social media features embedded in larger platforms—a broader net than many expected. Lawmakers framed the measure as a response to what they see as a genuine crisis. Centrist legislator Laure Miller, presenting the bill to the chamber, spoke of children reading less, sleeping less, and spending more time comparing themselves to peers online. "This is a battle for free minds," she said. Even far-right lawmaker Thierry Perez, not typically aligned with Miller's centrist bloc, called the ban a response to a "health emergency." The political consensus reflects genuine public concern: a Harris Interactive survey from 2024 found that 73 percent of French adults supported restricting social media access for under-15s.

Macron has positioned social media as a contributing factor to youth violence, and he is not alone in that concern. The European Parliament has already called for the EU to establish minimum age requirements across member states, though enforcement remains each country's responsibility. Australia's precedent is instructive but also cautionary. When the Australian ban went live, the government quickly acknowledged implementation would be messy. Children claiming to be under 16 flooded social platforms with posts celebrating their continued access, mocking the age-verification systems meant to block them. France's approach will require platforms to deploy age-verification mechanisms that comply with EU privacy law—a technical and legal puzzle that has no perfect solution.

The French bill extends beyond social media itself. It also broadens an existing smartphone ban in junior and middle schools to include high schools, tightening restrictions on device use during the school day. This dual approach—blocking platforms at home and devices at school—suggests lawmakers see the problem as systemic rather than isolated to any single app or network.

On the streets of Paris, teenagers offered mixed reactions. Some acknowledged the real harms social media can inflict: bullying, anxiety, the relentless pressure of comparison. Others saw the ban as paternalistic overreach, a government deciding for them what they should be allowed to access. That tension—between protection and autonomy—sits at the heart of the policy. The bill assumes that the mental health and social benefits of keeping under-15s off platforms outweigh the loss of connection and self-expression those platforms provide. Whether that calculation holds up in practice, and whether France can actually enforce age verification at scale without creating a surveillance apparatus, remains to be seen. The Senate vote comes next, and if it passes, France will join Australia in a real-time experiment in digital gatekeeping.