{"id":57544,"date":"2026-07-27T17:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/57544\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T17:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:12:11","slug":"france-passes-law-banning-under-15s-from-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/57544\/","title":{"rendered":"France Passes Law Banning Under-15s From Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

France passed a law<\/a> last Tuesday banning children younger than 15 years old from using social media.<\/p>\n

The legislation, which French parliament members passed in a 279-81 vote<\/a> on July 21, will require social media platforms like Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok to identify and block users under 15 years old.<\/p>\n

The law also includes a bell-to-bell<\/a> ban on cell phones in French high schools. The country already prohibits phones in elementary and middle schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrance is leading the way in Europe when it comes to protecting our children and teenagers,\u201d French President Emmanuel Macron commented in a video posted<\/a> to X.<\/p>\n

The law must pass a constitutional review<\/a> before it can take effect. If approved, children under 15 would be unable to create new accounts on regulated social media platforms starting in September.<\/p>\n

Social media companies would be required to block all users under 15 by January 2027.<\/p>\n

France is the second nation to pass an age-based social media ban. Australia passed the first, which keeps all kids under 16 off social media, in 2024. The policy went into effect<\/a> in December 2025.<\/p>\n

Now, The Independent reports<\/a>, dozens of countries are considering or actively legislating similar bans, including:<\/p>\n

\tAustria
\n \tDenmark
\n \tGermany
\nGreece
\nNorway
\nPoland
\nSlovenia
\nSpain
\nPortugal
\nCanada
\nThailand
\nIndonesia
\nMalaysia<\/p>\n

Former UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer introduced a policy like Australia\u2019s in June, saying he hoped to pass it by Christmas. His resignation left the legislation in limbo.<\/p>\n

The European Union is reportedly workshopping policy which would prevent children under 13 from accessing social media platforms, AI chatbots<\/a> and certain types of video games.<\/p>\n

Many social media platforms already prohibit users under 13 in their usage agreements.<\/p>\n

While few contest social media\u2019s destructive impact<\/a> on children, some question the efficacy of age-based social media bans.<\/p>\n

Critics of France\u2019s policy pointed to data from Australia illustrating the difficulty of enforcing age verification requirements.<\/p>\n

A March survey<\/a> by the Australian government found seven in 10 surveyed parents whose children had an account on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok prior to the ban reported their children still had access to their account after the ban took effect.<\/p>\n

The report out of Australia identifies a lot of room for improvement, both in how the government enforces the ban and in how social media companies use age verification technology. But the data isn\u2019t all negative.<\/p>\n

Before the ban, nearly half of the parents surveyed said their child had an account with at least one of the restricted social media platforms. After the ban, less than one third reported the same.<\/p>\n

Even at its best, age verification won\u2019t prevent every child from accessing social media. But psychology professor Jean Twenge believes policies like Australia\u2019s and France\u2019s don\u2019t have to be 100% perfect to be effective.<\/p>\n

Twenge uses underage drinking laws as an example. Though the laws didn\u2019t stop people under 21 from accessing alcohol, they did reduce deaths from car accidents and alcohol\u2019s popularity with teens.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Twenge explains, policies like underage drinking laws and social media bans are stop gap measures which cause, but don\u2019t replace, social change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government got better at enforcing [underage drinking laws], and then social norms took over and made it less acceptable to drink while underage,\u201d she writes in a piece<\/a> for Generation Tech, predicting:<\/p>\n

The same will be true for social media: Enforcement will improve, and eventually the social norm will move away from teens feeling like they \u201chave to be on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps more importantly, while the government and social media industry should take steps to protect children, parents bear ultimate responsibility for their children\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n

Parents deserve industry and government protections against dangerous products like social media. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says it well:<\/p>\n

In Europe, whoever develops a product is responsible for its safety. Car manufacturers must make their vehicles safe. We do not expect children to design their own seatbelts. We do not expect parents to fit airbags at home.<\/p>\n

But, by the same token, parents should avoid products they know are dangerous. We don\u2019t eat contaminated food products. We don\u2019t drive cars with poor safety ratings. Parents should seriously consider keeping their children off social media social media \u2014 a product which mounting evidence suggests is defective<\/a> by design<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Industry and government solutions are essential. They are also costly, fallible and slow moving. Parents should always take their own steps to protect their kids from internet predation, including taking away their internet access.<\/p>\n

A flip phone never hurt nobody. The same can\u2019t be said of smartphones.<\/p>\n

For more information keeping your kids safe online, read the articles below.<\/p>\n

Additional Articles and Resources<\/p>\n

Counseling Consultation & Referrals<\/a><\/p>\n

Parenting Tips for Guiding Your Kids in the Digital Age<\/a><\/p>\n

New AI Tool Helps Parents Keep Kids Safe Online<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia Bans Kids Under 16 Years Old From Social Media<\/a><\/p>\n

More Than Twenty States Limit Smartphone Use in Schools<\/a><\/p>\n

Texas Can Enforce App Store Accountability Act \u2014 For Now<\/a><\/p>\n

Lawsuit Against Snapchat Latest in Social Media Accountability Push<\/a><\/p>\n

Juries in California, New Mexico Rule Against Meta<\/a><\/p>\n

New Mexico Accuses Meta of Egregious Harm to Children in Court Case<\/a><\/p>\n

Social Psychologist Finds Smartphones and Social Media Harm Kids in These Four Ways<\/a><\/p>\n

Four Ways to Protect Your Kids from Bad Tech, From Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt<\/a><\/p>\n

Survey Finds Teens Use Social Media More Than Four Hours Per Day \u2014 Here\u2019s What Parents Can Do<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018The Tech Exit\u2019 Helps Families Ditch Addictive Tech \u2014 For Good<\/a><\/p>\n

Parent-Run Groups Help Stop Childhood Smartphone Use<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France passed a law last Tuesday banning children younger than 15 years old from using social media. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,1148],"class_list":["post-57544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-france","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}