The French National Assembly voted 130 in favor and 21 against on Monday to formally pass a bill aimed at banning the use of social media by children under the age of 15. With a strong push from President Emmanuel Macron, the French government hopes to formally implement the law before the start of the new school year in September. In addition to restricting minors' use of social media, the bill also prohibits the use of smartphones in high schools, although online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia, Directory of Education and Science, and open source software platforms such as GitHub are exempt.
Although the bill still needs to be brought to the Senate for discussion in the coming weeks, it has received rare cross-party support in French politics. Macron hopes to speed up the legislation and pass it ahead of other European countries considering similar laws. Citing data from France's national public health agency, Macron noted that half of the country's teenagers spend between two and five hours a day on their smartphones. Approximately 90 percent of teenagers access the Internet through their mobile phones every day, and more than half of them browse social media on their mobile phones. Macron said the move was aimed at protecting children's brains from American technology platforms and Chinese networks. Another lawmaker pointed out that this legislation clearly shows that social media is not harmless and can cause children to read less, sleep less and increase the psychological comparison with others.
If the bill goes ahead according to Macron's timetable, France would surpass proposals from other European countries including Greece, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom. Greece plans to implement a ban starting next year, and restrictions on teenagers under the age of 16 are also expected to be submitted to the Norwegian and British parliaments for consideration before the end of 2026.
However, Australia late last year became the first democracy to attempt such a ban, but recent research has cast doubt on its effectiveness. It is estimated that three in five Australian teenagers aged 12 to 15 still have access to one or more social media accounts. Accordingly, many users report that platforms such as YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok have largely ignored requests to close the accounts of teenagers under 16 years old. While many young people get around restrictions through virtual private networks or other workarounds, most say the social network never asks them for age verification. In order to plug this loophole, France is also currently considering restricting the use of virtual private networks.
In response, the Australian government has doubled the penalties for non-compliant companies, with fines reaching as high as $99 million. Currently, the Australian Internet regulator is targeting Meta, Instagram, Facebook, Google, YouTube, Sna