France Passes Bill Banning Social Media for Children Under 15

The French parliament on Tuesday passed a bill aimed at protecting minors from the risks associated with social media use. The legislation seeks to ban children under the age of 15 from accessing social media and to shield them from harmful or anxiety-inducing content. The relevant legal provisions will come into force on 1 September this year. The social media services covered by the legislation include Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Snapchat, as well as any services that allow users to interact, disseminate content publicly, or participate in user communities. However, online encyclopaedias such as Wikipedia and educational or scientific repositories are exempt from the rules. “The ban on social media use for children under 15 will take effect at the start of the new school year. It is now up to the Constitutional Council to issue its ruling before we move to the implementation stage to realise this measure and protect our children online,” President Emmanuel Macron said on the social media platform X. A study published by Public Health France in 2025 showed that in 2022, children aged three to five in metropolitan France spent an average of one hour and 22 minutes per day in front of screens. The figure was one hour and 53 minutes for children aged six to eight, and two hours and 33 minutes for the nine to 11 age group.