France to ban social media use for children under 15

France is set to become the first European Union member state to implement a general ban on social media use for children under the age of 15. Legislators have voted in favor of the law, which is supported by President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron has stated that the ban should be implemented within the current school year, arguing that social media algorithms are designed to maximize engagement in ways that can negatively influence the emotions and behaviors of young users. The French regulatory authority, Arcom, noted that teenagers aged 12 to 17 spend an average of more than one hour daily on TikTok, expressing particular concern regarding recommendation algorithms that may expose minors to increasingly intense or extreme content.

The law faces significant technical implementation challenges, specifically regarding how platforms will reliably verify the age of users. While France intends to implement an age-verification system, the precise technical mechanisms remain unclarified.