French President, Emmanuel Macron has said his government will fast-track legislation to ban children under the age of 15 from using social media, with the aim of enforcing the law before the start of the next school year in September.
“The brains of our children and adolescents are not for sale,” Macron said in a video released late Saturday. “Their emotions are not for sale or to be manipulated, whether by American platforms or Chinese algorithms.”
Macron said the government plans to ban social media access for under-15s and also prohibit mobile phone use in high schools, describing the move as a clear and necessary rule for teenagers, families and teachers.
The announcement comes as several Western countries push for tougher online safety laws to protect minors from the potential harms of social media. In December, Australia passed landmark legislation banning under-16s from holding accounts on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. Britain has also said it is considering similar measures, including a possible ban on social media use for under-16s.
In France, the proposed ban is being driven by lawmakers who argue that existing safeguards are ineffective due to weak age-verification systems. One lawmaker involved in the process said that currently, users can simply enter any date of birth to access social platforms.
“What we want to impose on platforms, by strictly enforcing the European Digital Services Act, is real age verification when you access a social network,” she said. “That changes everything, because users will actually have to prove whether they are over or under 15.”
She acknowledged that some users may still find ways to bypass restrictions but said the priority is to take decisive steps to protect minors online.
Following Australia’s ban, authorities said more than 4.7 social media accounts believed to belong to under-16s had been deactivated or removed. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the decision was driven by growing evidence of social harm and pressure from parents and young people alike.
“We know that social harm is being caused, and therefore we have a responsibility as a government to respond,” Albanese said, adding that teenagers should be encouraged to spend more time on offline activities such as sports, music and reading.
Not everyone supports the move. Elon Musk, the owner of X, previously criticised Australia’s ban, calling it a “backdoor war to control access to the Internet,” although the platform has complied with the law.
One of the influences behind Australia’s decision was a 2024 book by American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, which argues that social media has significantly damaged children’s mental health.
“The basic argument is that we’ve overprotected our children in the real world and under-protected them online,” Haidt said. “We were wrong on both points.”
