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France’s parliament has passed a law banning children under 15 from using social media from January 2027, making it the first European country to ban young people from the platform.
The law means everyone in France must prove they are of age to access social media and comes as the UK and EU raise their own limits in response to concerns over children’s mental health.
French President Emmanuel Macron has welcomed a move he has promised to promote to end his term in office.
While skeptics question the law’s feasibility, the government insists its online tools to put age checks in place are effective and reliable.
Both the French Senate and National Assembly approved the ban on Tuesday, despite criticism from some on the left.
It will be implemented in two stages.
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Starting in September, people under the age of 15 will not be able to open an account and age verification will be required on all new accounts.
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In January 2027, this law will apply to all existing accounts – meaning anyone in France will have to prove they are over 15 to use social media.
Once the ban goes into effect, social media platforms will have to use age verification tools approved by France’s privacy watchdog, Reuters news agency reported.
But concerns have been raised over privacy, the effectiveness of age-verification tools, potential risks to young people and how quickly the ban could be rolled out, Agence France-Presse reported.
France’s Digital Minister Anne Le Haenenf defended the speed of the law’s implementation ahead of the vote because “age verification devices already exist,” the agency added.
France is the second country to introduce a ban after Australia.
Although Australia banned children under 16 from social media in December, it is. It has been widely accepted Many continue to use the platforms.
In March, the Australian Safety Commission reported that seven in 10 children under the age of 16 with social media accounts still had “some access” after the ban.
Following this, Tama Lever, a professor of internet studies at Curtin University in Western Australia, told the BBC that the ban had “failed” in its technical aims.
However, despite classifying it as a “small experiment”, he says the ban has successfully demonstrated “it can be done”.
One lesson that other countries can learn from this example is that “youth must be part of this conversation” so that the ban is not “with” them, but “for them”.
Lever said the French ban may have a higher chance of success because of the requirement for everyone to verify their age, but that would increase risks to privacy.
Additional risks of the ban include pushing young people into unregulated online spaces, reducing their news consumption and reducing their political power, he added.
In the past few months, laws restricting young people’s access to social media have been spreading across Europe.
In June, former British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced Under 16 in the UK He will be banned from social media from January 2027. Optional After midnight UK teenagers aged 16 and 17 have also been announced.
In May, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed a “Social media lag“For children in Europe and they said that a new law could be issued after months.
