Lawmakers in France’s National Assembly on Monday passed a bill that would ban children under 15 years old from usingsocial media.
They voted 116 to 23 in favor the bill.
The legislation will now go to the Senate, the upper house of parliament.
President Emmanuel Macron has championed the ban saying it’s necessary to protect French children and teenagers from excessive screen time.
He hailed Monday’s vote as a “major step” and stressed in a post on X that “our children’s brains are not for sale. Not to American platforms, nor to Chinese networks.”
The draft bill proposes banning under-15s from social networks and “social networking functionalities” embedded within broader platforms.
It, however, excludes online encyclopedias and educational platforms.
Platforms would be required to put in place effective age-verification mechanisms to block access to young teenagers.
The legislation also extends an existing ban on smartphones in junior schools to also cover high schools.
Authorities want the measures to be enforced from the start of the 2026 school year for new accounts.
France would be the second country to impose such a ban after Australia recently barred social media for children under 16 years old.
As social media usage has grown, it has heightened concerns about excessive screen time.
And fears abound about its negative impact on child development and mental health.
France’s public health watchdog ANSES said this month that platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram had several detrimental effects on adolescents, particularly girls.
The risks listed include cyberbullying and exposure to violent content.
