France debates Macron-backed social media ban on under-15s

France is set to follow Australia’s lead and ban teenagers from using social media as the National Assembly debates a new law.

The law would ban teenagers under the age of 15 from accessing networks such as Snapchat, Instagram and Tiktok.

President Emmanuel Macron has said he wants the ban to be implemented before the start of the school year in September.

France’s move is part of a global trend to restrict children’s social networking, which has been triggered by growing evidence that children’s social networking can be harmful to mental health.

“We cannot leave the mental and emotional well-being of our children in the hands of those whose sole purpose is to make money from them,” Macron said last month.

Under the new text, the state media regulator will draw up a list of social media networks deemed harmful. These will simply be prohibited from use by those under 15 years of age.

A separate list of supposedly less harmful sites will be accessible, subject to explicit parental approval.

The bill is seen as having a good chance of passing, with the parties supporting Macron likely to be joined by the centre-right Republicans (LR) and the populist right-wing National Rally (RN).

Another provision would ban the use of mobile phones in high schools (lycées). The ban is already in effect in middle and junior high schools.

If the law is passed, France will need to agree on an age verification mechanism. There is already a system in place that requires people over 18 to prove their age when accessing online pornography.

In Europe, Denmark, Greece, Spain and Ireland are also considering following suit Australian example. Earlier this month, the UK government launched a consultation on banning social media use by under-16s.

France’s proposed law is based on a text drafted late last year by deputy lawmaker Laure Miller, who chairs a parliamentary committee investigating the psychological impact of TikTok and other networks.

Separately, the government was told to enact its own legislation after Macron decided to make the issue a centerpiece of his final year in power.

The president has stayed away from domestic politics since what he calls a hung parliament in 2024, and the social media ban is a rare opportunity to win public support.

For a time, the cause risked becoming the victim of a squabble between Macron and his predecessor, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal (Miller is a lawmaker in Attal’s party). But ultimately the administration appears to be united behind the Miller bill.

If the text is approved on Monday, it will pass the Senate, the upper house, next month. Macron said he had asked Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s government to use fast-track procedures to get the legislation into the text by September.

Without resorting to fast-tracking, which allows for one reading instead of two in each chamber, the law has little chance of overcoming the legislative backlog created by Lekonou’s difficulties in passing a budget.

The bill already had to be redrafted to take into account issues raised by the Council of State, the body responsible for previewing draft legislation to ensure it complies with French and European law.

A 2023 law proposed a similar social media ban for teenagers, but it proved unenforceable after a court ruled it violated European law.