French lawmakers vote to ban social media use by under-15s

French lawmakers have passed a bill that would ban social media use by under-15s, a move championed by president Emmanuel Macron as a way to protect children from excessive screen time.The lower National Assembly adopted the text by a vote of 130 to 21 in a lengthy overnight session from Monday to Tuesday.It will now go to the Senate, France’s upper house, ahead of becoming law.Macron hailed the vote as a “major step” to protect French children and teenagers in a post on X.The legislation, which also provides for a ban on mobile phones in high schools, would make France the second country to take such a step following Australia’s ban for under-16s in December.As social media has grown, so has concern that too much screen time is harming child development and contributing to mental health problems.“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 want the measures to be enforced from the start of the 2026 school year for new accounts.Former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who leads Macron’s Renaissance party in the lower house, said he hoped the Senate would pass the bill by mid-February so that the ban could come into force on 1 September.He added that “social media platforms will then have until 31 December to deactivate existing accounts” that do not comply with the age limit.In addition to combating the impact of screens and social media on the mental health of young adolescents, Attal stressed that the measure would counter “a number of powers that, through social media platforms, want to colonise minds”.“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 this month that social media such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram had several detrimental effects on adolescents, particularly girls, though it was not the sole reason for their declining mental health.The risks listed include cyberbullying and exposure to violent content.The legislation stipulates that “access to an online social networking service provided by an online platform is prohibited for minors under the age of 15”.The draft bill excludes online encyclopedias and educational platforms.An effective age verification system would have to come into force for the ban to become reality. Work on such a system is under way at the European level.The hard-left France Unbowed’s (LFI) Arnaud Saint-Martin criticised the ban as “a form of digital paternalism” and an “overly simplistic” response to the negative impacts of technology.On Monday, nine child protection associations urged lawmakers to “hold platforms accountable”, not “ban” children from social media.Macron has also backed a ban on pupils having mobile phones in high schools.In 2018, France banned children from using mobile phones in colleges, the schools attended between the ages of 11 and 15.Former prime minister Elisabeth Borne expressed reservations about the measure on Monday.“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.”