What happened: On Tuesday, France became the first EU country to approve a ban on social media for children under 15.
“I committed to it, and now it's been passed,” president Emmanuel Macron wrote on Instagram after the French parliament approved the ban. He has championed the law as a key reform of his final term in office.
Platforms will be held responsible for enforcing the rules, rather than parents or children. France's digital minister, Anne Le Hénanff, said that by “limiting continuous screentime, we are protecting children's attention span, their sleep, and their mental well being.”
Why it matters: The vote has turned months of political debate into Europe's first national social media ban for under-15s, and France will likely become a test case for the rest of the EU. France's ban comes just over a week after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would present proposals on age-appropriate restrictions for children's access to social media after the summer.
There are several arguments for and against social media bans for minors. While supporters see them as a necessary safeguard, opponents argue that these bans risk excluding young people from an increasingly important public space. What really matters, they say, is making digital platforms safer.
Whether the law succeeds will depend largely on age verification. The European Commission is already testing an EU age-verification app. Critics argue that children can still bypass restrictions by using someone else's credentials, while privacy advocates have questioned how platforms will verify users' ages without collecting excessive personal data.
What's next: France's Constitutional Council must first determine whether the law complies with the French constitution. Once approved, France aims to begin enforcing the ban when the school year starts in September.
The rollout will happen in two stages. From September, platforms will have to prevent under-15s from creating new accounts. Existing accounts belonging to under-15s will have to be removed from January 2027.
The French experience is likely to show how enforceable national bans are in practice.
If the ban proves effective, it could encourage similar measures elsewhere in Europe. If it turns out easy to circumvent, it may instead strengthen the case for making platforms safer for everyone rather than keeping young people off them.
One irony remains: Macron announced the ban in an Instagram reel soundtracked by Kanye West. Yes, the very artist who has repeatedly made antisemitic statements and publicly praised Hitler. Perhaps the Élysée should spend a little less time on Instagram, too.