France Approves Social Media Ban for Under-15s

France’s Parliament has approved a national restriction preventing children under 15 from creating social media accounts. Under the agreed text, platforms must block new accounts for under-15s from 1 September. The restriction will extend to existing accounts from 1 January 2027.

The legislation forms part of France’s wider approach to online child protection and age assurance. The French data protection authority will assess whether platforms’ age-verification systems meet the required standards. The final text adopts a broad restriction rather than the Senate’s proposed two-tier model, which would have distinguished between a list of particularly harmful services and platforms accessible with parental consent.

The measure was revised following concerns raised by the European Commission about its compatibility with EU law. France’s digital minister, Anne Le Hénanff, has described the final approach as proportionate and compliant with the European legal framework. Its implementation will nevertheless require careful coordination with the Digital Services Act, GDPR rules on children’s consent and data minimisation, and EU rules governing age-assurance technologies.

The law also extends restrictions on mobile-phone use to most high schools, building on existing rules for primary and middle schools. The proposal has attracted criticism from some lawmakers and digital-rights groups, particularly over the potential impact of identity and age verification on privacy and online anonymity.

France is not acting alone. Denmark, Greece, Spain, and Germany are considering or have discussed similar measures. At EU level, the debate is also moving toward common safeguards: an expert panel convened by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reportedly recommended a social-media ban for children under 13 and graduated access for older minors. Any EU-wide initiative will need to balance child protection with privacy, freedom of expression, and the prohibition on unnecessary collection of identity data.