French President Emmanuel Macron wants to fast-track legislation to ban social media for teens under the age of 15, with parliament slated to vote on a draft proposal on Monday. We take a closer look in this edition of Tech 24.
“The brains of our children and teenagers are not for sale,” Macron said in a recorded video he provided to French broadcaster BFM.
“Our teenagers’ emotions are not to be manipulated – either by American platforms or by Chinese algorithms.”
Macron, in the video shared on Saturday, said he had asked the government to “activate the accelerated procedure” so the ban can be enforced by the start of the 2026-27 school year in September.
“It’s [Monday] going to be a really big day for France because the law coming to parliament looks at restricting access to social networks for children under 15, and this is a very important fight,” Clara Chappaz, French Ambassador for AI and Digital Affairs, told Tech 24.
“The president has been pushing a strong idea: making sure our children stay children and enjoy real life before they are exposed to social media.”
If passed, France could soon become the next major democracy to enforce a sweeping social media ban after Australia introduced a nationwide ban on under-16s using major platforms in December.
Under the Australian law, responsibility lies with tech companies, not parents. Platforms face penalties if underage users remain on their services.
Since the ban came into effect, 4.7 million Australian social media accounts have been deactivated.
Meta said it removed nearly 550,000 under-16 accounts in one month; that’s around 330,000 on Instagram, 173,500 on Facebook and nearly 40,000 on Threads.
Reddit, another platform covered by the ban, has launched a legal challenge against the Australian government. Other tech giants warned that the ban could isolate vulnerable children or push them to unregulated corners of the internet.
Chappaz said France has been working towards imposing rules to protect teens online for some time.
“Over the course of the last year and a half, he [Macron] has first built a coalition of scientists to really like pinpoint what the impact on mental health [from social media] is and what recommendations that the scientists come forward with, and this was one of the main recommendations: no social media below 15.”
Chappaz added that Australia’s work was also closely followed, and “if enough countries move in the same direction, the internet itself starts to change.”
