(LifeSiteNews) — The French National Assembly overwhelmingly passed legislation last week that would ban children under 15 from using social media.
The bill was passed by the Assemblée Nationale by a whopping 130-21 margin on January 26 and will now be considered by the country’s Senate, according to French media. The proposed law would restrict nearly all access to social media for children under 15, with exceptions for educational platforms.
The bill would also bar the use of mobile phones in high schools.
“With this law, we are setting a clear limit in society. We are saying something simple: Social media is not harmless,” MP Laure Miller, who authored the bill, said after it passed.
“These social networks promised to connect, but they have fragmented,” she added. “They promised to inform, but they have overwhelmed. They promised to entertain, but they have trapped users.”
Miller proposed the legislation following a 2025 parliamentary committee report that showed how the social media giant TikTok psychologically harms children by exposing them to highly addictive content that is linked to depression, self-harm, and even suicide, with minimal content moderation. The report recommended a ban on social media for children under 15.
READ: Social media pushes pornography on children within minutes, report finds
If passed, the bill would require all social media platforms to implement age verification features to enforce the ban. The legislation would also restrict minors’ access to some social features on instant messaging services like WhatsApp and those in popular video games among children and teenagers, such as Roblox and Fortnite.
One amendment to the bill also stipulates that social media companies can be held liable when their algorithms target minors’ accounts, though it does not specify penalties.
The bill vaguely states that online encyclopedias, educational or scientific directories, and platforms “for the development and sharing of open source software” are exempt from the ban, without specifying which platforms are covered.
The potential legislation also bars high school students from using their mobile phones on school property to help keep students focused. However, the legislation allows individual schools to make exceptions to where and when phones may be used on school property.
“You cannot learn calmly when you are receiving notifications all day long in your pocket,” French Education Minister Edouard Geffray said.
The proposed legislation has been championed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who emphasized that prohibiting children under 15 from accessing social media would follow the recommendations of scientists.
“Banning social media for those under 15: this is what scientists recommend, and this is what the French people are overwhelmingly calling for,” Macron said. “Because our children’s brains are not for sale, neither to American platforms nor to Chinese networks. Because their dreams must not be dictated by algorithms.”
Conservative MP Thierry Perez also backed the bill, calling it a response to a “public health emergency.” “Social media allowed everyone to express themselves, but at what cost to our children?” he said before the bill was passed.
Indeed, the legislation has garnered support across France’s political spectrum, with only some liberal MPs opposing it over concerns of government overreach and digital privacy. Leftist MP Arnaud Saint-Martin slammed the proposed ban as an “overly simplistic” response to the negative impacts of technology and “a form of digital paternalism.”
French political commentator Jon De Lorraine criticized the bill as simply being an excuse to force digital ID on the French population.
🚨🇫🇷 BREAKING: France’s Macron & Attal are LYIN G to push TOTAL digital control !
Banning social media for under-15s is just the excuse to force DIGITAL ID on EVERYONE biometrics, selfies, tracking your every opinion… right before 2027 elections.
This is mass surveillance… pic.twitter.com/R9aF98aTRw— Jon De Lorraine (@jon_delorraine) January 26, 2026
At Macron’s request, the government fast-tracked the bill so it would require only one reading in each legislative chamber, rather than the standard two.
If the bill is ultimately passed, it would be just the second of its kind banning teenagers from using social media. In December 2025, Australia’s government passed a similar law enforcing the world’s first social media ban for minors 16 and younger.
READ: Australia implements world’s first social media ban for minors
The law barred minors from maintaining accounts on several prominent social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit, X, YouTube, Twitch, and Kick.
While Australian minors will not face punishment for finding ways to continue accessing these sites, the tech giants that manage the platforms put themselves at risk if they fail to take “reasonable steps” to prevent kids under 16 from having accounts.
If found to be not sufficiently compliant with the new ban, Australia’s eSafety Commission can pursue civil penalties of up to $49.5 million.
Similar to the French bill, Australia’s law made exceptions for some platforms, including Discord, GitHub, Google Classroom, LEGO Play, Messenger, Pinterest, Roblox, Steam and Steam Chat, WhatsApp, and YouTube Kids.
Other European countries have proposed similar measures. Last month, the British government launched a consultation on banning social media for teens under 16.
On Tuesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that beginning next week, he plans to enforce a similar ban on social media platforms for children under 16 through age verification measures. However, the measure will still need to be approved by the Spanish parliament, where Sánchez’s socialist party lacks a majority.
