France set to ban social media for under-15s, a first in EU

French lawmakers are expected to approve a bill banning social media access for children under 15 on Tuesday, July 21, putting France at the forefront of similar efforts in the European Union (EU), Report informs.

Lawmakers from the upper and lower houses reached a compromise on the bill's text on Monday, paving the way for a vote on its final adoption.

The social media rule is expected to block under-15s from creating new accounts from September 1. The ban will apply to existing accounts from January 2027, according to the text.

President Emmanuel Macron has championed the law as a flagship reform of his final term in office and pledged to enforce it by September, meaning another element of the bill, a mobile phone ban in secondary schools, would be in place by the beginning of the school year.

The two chambers had disagreed on approach, however. Senators had opted for a two-tier system distinguishing between blacklisted platforms flagged as harmful to a child's development, and those that could still be accessed with parental consent. But the Assemblée Nationale's broader approach, demanding social media platforms refuse new users under 15 and suspend accounts belonging to children under that age, prevailed. Exceptions are provided for sites such as online encyclopedias and educational platforms.

The EU itself has been mulling a social media ban since a push by member states, including France, Greece and Spain, to limit access. Last week, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said children should have "phased and gradual access" to social media.