The country’s new law also bans the use of mobile phones in schools.
French regulators have passed a bill banning social media for children under 15, CNN reports. The new bill, assuming it’s approved by France’s Constitutional Council, could make the country the first European Union member to implement a social media ban, following the passage of similar regulation in Australia in 2024.
The new law aims to counter the negative health impacts connected to children’s use of social media, while also banning the use of mobile phones in schools and implementing new rules around how social platforms are advertised, according to the Associated Press. Regulators have suggested age verification tools could be used to identify if users are old enough to make an account, though it’s not clear what system social media platforms will be expected to implement to follow the law. That decision may ultimately fall to ARCOM, France’s digital communications regulator, which will enforce the ban once it’s in place.
Depending on whether President Emmanuel Macron gets his way, those details may come together quickly. In an X post thanking Parliament for approving the ban, Macron called for the law to be enforced by the start of the school year in September. Macron previously asked for the vote on the ban to be expedited in Parliament, CNN writes.
France isn’t the only country in Europe to consider a social media ban, but it is poised to be the first to actually implement one. The United Kingdom has explored the possibility of a ban, and is already partially enforcing one through the age-gating requirements of the Online Safety Act. Denmark, separately, is close to introducing its own ban, too. Across the Atlantic, Canadian regulators have introduced their own bill to ban social media for children 16 years or younger in June.
While lawmakers globally are drawn to bans, it’s worth noting the possible shortcomings. At least two separate studies published in April and June have found that a significant number of Australian children continued to use social media after the ban went into place, possibly due to social platforms’ lax approach to age verification. As reports of the early issues with Roblox’s age verification system suggest, implementing these systems is also difficult in its own right. The fallout from France’s ban could very well be filled with similar issues.
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