France Becomes First EU Nation to Ban Social Media for Children Under 15

France has adopted one of Europe’s most far-reaching restrictions on children’s access to social media, prohibiting users younger than 15 from holding accounts without parental authorization. The legislation is designed to reduce young people’s exposure to addictive algorithms, cyberbullying, harmful content, disrupted sleep and mounting mental health concerns linked to excessive online activity.

The measure makes France the first major European Union country to approve a national age restriction of this scale. It follows Australia, which became the first country to introduce a similarly broad ban on youth access to social media, and places France at the center of an expanding international debate over children’s online safety.

Social media companies will now be required to prevent children under 15 from opening accounts without parental approval. Platforms must also identify existing accounts that fail to meet the new rules and deactivate profiles belonging to users who cannot demonstrate that they satisfy the age requirement established by the legislation.

Technology companies will no longer be able to rely solely on users entering a date of birth. They will be expected to use approved third-party age-verification systems or other authorized tools capable of confirming a person’s age while attempting to limit the collection of unnecessary personal information.

Popular services including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and X are expected to fall within the scope of the law. However, the final treatment of platforms combining social networking, messaging and video functions may depend on how individual services are classified under the new regulatory framework and how their content-sharing features operate.

The legislation also extends restrictions on mobile phone use across French high schools. Supporters argue that the classroom should be protected from constant notifications, personalized feeds and digital distractions that compete with students’ attention throughout the school day and interfere with learning, concentration and direct social interaction.

French health authorities have warned that many teenagers spend several hours each day using smartphones. Researchers have increasingly associated prolonged social media exposure with sleep deprivation, anxiety, reduced self-esteem, loneliness and harmful online behavior, strengthening political pressure for governments to impose tougher protections on platforms used by minors.

French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly accused major technology companies of exploiting the emotions and vulnerabilities of young users. Defending the legislation, he declared:

«The brains of our children and our teenagers are not for sale. Their emotions are not for sale or to be manipulated, neither by American platforms nor by Chinese algorithms.»

The French law is being closely watched in Brussels, where European officials are considering whether broader protections should be introduced across the European Union. Supporters of coordinated rules argue that a common system would prevent children from bypassing national restrictions and would create consistent age-verification standards across all member states.

Canada has proposed its own restrictions through Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, which would establish a minimum age of 16. Unlike France, Canada’s proposal would permit companies to serve younger users if they prove that their platforms include strong safety protections and meet standards established by a federal Digital Safety Commission.

The United States continues to rely largely on state-level legislation because no national ban has been adopted. States including Florida, Texas, Utah, Ohio and California have pursued age checks, parental consent requirements or restrictions on addictive platform features, but many measures have faced court challenges involving privacy and First Amendment protections.