French Parliament Mediation Committee Approves Bill to Ban Social Media Use for Under-15s

French parliamentary mediation committee approves bill to ban social media for under-15s

July 21

In France, a parliamentary mediation committee approved on July 20 a bill that would ban children and teenagers under the age of 15 from using social media.

French President Macron wants the ban to take effect as early as the start of the school year in early September.

If the bill becomes law, France would become the second country to impose such a ban, following Australia, which banned children under 16 from using social media platforms such as Meta's Facebook, Snap's Snapchat, ByteDance's TikTok, and Alphabet's YouTube last December.

President Macron is advocating for such restrictions to be implemented across the European Union (EU), and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has also supported a plan to limit children's social media use among the 27 EU member states.

The draft agreed upon by the parliamentary mediation committee will be discussed in the lower house on July 21, followed by further discussions in the upper house.

If the law is enacted, the Minister of Information Technology will be required to publish a list of banned social media platforms, and social media companies must implement age verification systems with approval from the French data protection authority.

Additionally, the bill includes a provision to ban the possession and use of smartphones in high schools.

Ref; Reuters, Photo; Reuters, iStock

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