French lawmakers have passed a bill seeking to ban children under the age of 15 from using social media, a move strongly backed by President Emmanuel Macron as part of efforts to protect young people from excessive screen time and its impact on mental health.
Gatekeepers News reports that the bill was adopted by the lower National Assembly in a late-night session from Monday to Tuesday, passing by 130 votes to 21. It will now be transmitted to the Senate, France’s upper legislative chamber, before it can become law.
President Macron welcomed the vote, describing it as a “major step” toward protecting children and teenagers, in a post shared on X.
If enacted, the legislation would make France the second country to impose such restrictions, following Australia, which banned social media use for under-16s in December. The bill also includes provisions to prohibit mobile phone use in high schools.
Growing concerns over the effects of prolonged screen time on child development and adolescent mental health have fuelled support for the measure.
“The emotions of our children and teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated, either by American platforms or Chinese algorithms,” Macron said in a video broadcast on Saturday.
Authorities plan to enforce the new rules from the start of the 2026 school year for new social media accounts. Former prime minister Gabriel Attal, now leader of Macron’s Renaissance party in the National Assembly, said he hoped the Senate would pass the bill by mid-February, allowing the ban to take effect on September 1.
Attal added that social media platforms would be given until December 31 to deactivate existing accounts that fail to comply with the age requirement.
Beyond addressing mental health concerns, Attal said the bill would also help counter foreign influence exerted through digital platforms.
“France can be a pioneer in Europe in a month: we can change the lives of our young people and our families, and perhaps also change the destiny of our country in terms of independence,” he said.
France’s public health watchdog, ANSES, said earlier this month that platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram have several harmful effects on adolescents, particularly girls, though it noted that social media was not the sole cause of declining mental health. Identified risks include cyberbullying and exposure to violent content.
The legislation states that “access to an online social networking service provided by an online platform is prohibited for minors under the age of 15,” while exempting online encyclopedias and educational platforms.
For the ban to be effective, an age-verification system would need to be implemented, with work on such mechanisms currently underway at the European level.
Critics, however, have raised concerns. Arnaud Saint-Martin of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party described the bill as “a form of digital paternalism” and an “overly simplistic” response to the harms associated with technology.
On Monday, nine child protection organisations urged lawmakers to focus on holding social media platforms accountable rather than banning children outright.
Macron has also supported extending restrictions on mobile phone use in schools. France previously banned mobile phones in middle schools in 2018 for pupils aged 11 to 15.
Former prime minister Elisabeth Borne expressed reservations about the new measure.
“It’s more complicated than that,” she told broadcaster France 2. “We first need to make sure that the ban is properly enforced in middle schools.”
