A measure that would prevent children under 15 from opening social media accounts passed both chambers of France’s parliament on July 21. Before taking effect, the text must undergo review by the Constitutional Council, but it does not clearly regulate how age will be determined or how existing accounts will be identified.
Under the measure, children under 15 will not be able to open new accounts from September 1, 2026. The process of closing existing accounts is planned to be completed by January 1, 2027.
Debate over platforms and scope
In addition to TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, X and Reddit, social-network features added to gaming services are also expected to fall within the scope of the ban. Educational and scientific reference resources are excluded.
Rather than listing the services covered individually, the law refers to the general definition in Article 6 of a 2004 law. This leaves the category covering hybrid services that offer social features within other products as an unresolved area of debate.
France plans to extend the ban on mobile phones already applied in primary and middle schools to high schools from the 2026–2027 academic year. According to a 2024 survey, 73 percent of French people supported a social media ban for those under 15.
Age-verification provisions removed
The initial draft submitted by lawmaker Laure Miller in November 2025 required platforms to use age-verification methods complying with technical guidelines to be established by the regulator Arcom. The same draft provided for fines of up to 3 percent of platforms’ global turnover for noncompliance and the creation of a list of platforms deemed harmful to children.
The earlier text also planned to block all users under 18 from accessing platforms between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. In its reasoned opinion dated July 6, the European Commission did not directly object to the age threshold of 15 or the age-verification requirement. The Commission’s criticisms focused on the overlap between the national oversight system and the coordinated supervision framework under the Digital Services Act.
During the legislative process, the approach of listing platforms was abandoned, and provisions granting Arcom supervisory powers were removed from the text. In its final form, the law says that people under 15 cannot hold accounts, but it does not specify which tools platforms should use to determine users’ ages or how they should identify and suspend existing accounts.
Because most major platforms operating in France are established in other European Union countries, the country-of-origin principle has also come under discussion. Anne Le Henanff, the minister responsible for digital affairs, argues that age-verification tools already exist and are effective. Enforcement mechanisms under the Digital Services Act will be important in implementing the measure.
Australia’s approach becomes a point of comparison
Before Australia’s social media ban was implemented, approximately 86 percent of children used at least one restricted platform. In the third month of implementation, the figure remained above 81 percent. Daily use fell from 60 percent to 58 percent, while account ownership declined from 52.4 percent to 42.1 percent.
Half of the children said the platforms themselves had not asked them to verify their ages, while 7.4 percent said they used a virtual private network. Despite the presence in Australia of a regulator and a maximum fine of 49.5 million Australian dollars, the failure to identify and close a significant portion of existing accounts became one of the main issues in the debate over implementation in France.
European countries consider age limits
Denmark has considered an age limit of 15, Greece plans to introduce a limit of 15 from 2027, Austria has considered 14, and Spain and Slovenia have considered 16. Work in these countries is progressing alongside the results of Australia’s implementation and the European Commission’s preparations for age-verification infrastructure.
Türkiye has also taken a similar step through a measure approved by the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye on April 22, 2026, with the sanctions defined from the outset. Until the age-verification infrastructure that the European Commission aims to roll out widely by the end of 2026 becomes operational, the extent to which France’s ban can be enforced remains uncertain.
