France’s National Assembly debated legislation to ban children under 15 years old from social media on Monday (January 26), amid growing concerns about online bullying and mental health risks.

The bill proposes banning under-15s from social networks and “social networking functionalities” embedded within broader platforms, and reflects rising public angst over the impact of social media on minors.

It will then pass to the Senate before a final vote in the lower house.

President Emmanuel Macron has pointed to social media as one factor to blame for violence among young people. He is urging France to follow Australia, whose world-first ban for under-16s on social media platforms including Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube came into force in December.

Macron wants the ban in place in time for the start of the next academic year in September.

“Our children read less, move less, sleep less, and compare themselves more,” centrist lawmaker Laure Miller told the chamber as she presented the bill. “We could and should unite behind a simple yet essential fight: to refuse to allow childhood to become a market and our youth to be the playground of algorithms,”.

Australia’s social media ban is being studied in countries including Britain, Denmark, Spain and Greece.

The European Parliament has called for the European Union to set minimum ages for children to access social media, although it is up to member states to impose age limits.

There is broad political and public support in France for curbing minors’ access to social media, and the bill was expected to pass in a vote later on Monday evening.

The far left ‘France Unbowed’ has voiced its opposition to the law, with lawmaker Louis Boyard calling it an “unenforceable” “PR stunt” and instead denouncing insufficient government funding for psychological support structures for minors.

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