The French parliament has approved a law banning children under the age of 15 from using social media. This makes France the first country in the European Union to introduce a general ban on social media for children.

The French government wants the law to better protect children against the harmful effects of social media. The aim is for the rules to come into effect in September, with the start of the new school year.

There may first be a review by the Constitutional Council, which will examine whether the law is in accordance with the constitution.

The law requires social media platforms to check the age of users and deny access to children under the age of 15. Online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia and platforms for sharing open source software are not included in the ban.

Age verification

The law also imposes a national telephone ban on French secondary schools. Primary and lower secondary schools in France have long had restrictions on the use of mobile phones.

How platforms should check the age of users is largely up to them. According to the French channel BFM, they can choose from different methods, as long as they comply with European privacy rules.

The European Commission is working on a system that checks age without the person having to share other personal data. It is not yet clear how existing accounts of children under the age of 15 will be detected and blocked.

Ban other countries

According to a report published earlier this year by the French health authority Anses, to which BFM refers, social media can contribute to sleep problems, anxiety and depression complaints and a negative self-image among young people.

A similar conclusion was reached in a study among tens of thousands of Austrian young people. In Austria, there are plans to restrict social media for children under 14 from 2027.

Australia introduced a ban on social media for children under 16 last year. The call for such a measure is also becoming louder in the Netherlands: research showed at the beginning of this year that 63 percent of Dutch people are in favor of a ban.