France plans to ban access to social media sites for children under 15 and ban mobile phones in secondary schools from September 2026, local media reported on Wednesday, moves that underline growing public angst over the impact of online harms on minors.
President Emmanuel Macron has often pointed to social media as one of the factors to blame for youth violence and has signaled that he wants France to follow Australia, whose first global ban on under-16s on social media platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube came into effect in December.
His government will present a bill for legal controls in early January, reported Le Monde and France Info.
Macron made no reference to the legislative push in a New Year’s Eve speech, but he did promise to “protect our children and adolescents from social media and screens.”
Previously, the Elysée and the prime minister’s office declined to comment on the media reports.
Mobile phones have been banned in French primary and secondary schools since 2018 and new reported changes would extend that ban to secondary schools. Students between 11 and 15 years old attend secondary schools in the French educational system.
France also passed a law in 2023 requiring social platforms to obtain parental consent for children under 15 to create accounts, although technical issues have prevented its implementation.
Macron wants more action at EU level
Macron said in June he would push for EU-wide regulation to ban all under-15s from accessing social media after a fatal stabbing at a school in eastern France shocked the nation.
In November, the European Parliament urged the EU to set minimum ages for children to access social media to combat the rise in mental health problems among teenagers due to overexposure, although it is member states that impose age limits.
Several other countries have also taken steps to regulate children’s access to social media.
Macron enters the New Year with his domestic legacy in tatters after his bid for parliamentary elections in 2024 led to a hung parliament, triggering France’s worst political crisis in decades and which has seen a succession of weak governments.
However, according to opinion polls, cracking down more on minors’ access to social media could prove popular. A Harris Interactive poll conducted in 2024 showed that 73% of respondents supported banning access to social media for those under 15 years of age.
