France’s Parliament passed a law Tuesday that will ban children under the age of 15 from accessing social media, according to a new report from France24. Australia and Indonesia have similar laws for kids under 16, but France is the first member of the European Union to pass such legislation.
The National Assembly passed the law with 279 votes to 81, though it still needs to be reviewed by the Constitutional Council, which ensures that any law passed in the country is constitutional before it’s implemented. Assuming it passes that test, the law will be enforced in two phases. Starting Sept. 1, anyone under 15 in France will be banned from creating a new social media account. Then on Jan. 1, 2027, anyone under 15 with active social media accounts will have them deleted.
President Emmanuel Macron, who leaves office next year, was a big advocate of the law and celebrated its passage on Tuesday. He said the legislation was needed to protect kids, making the pronouncement in a video that kids will no longer be able to legally view by 2027.
“France is leading the way in Europe when it comes to protecting our children and teenagers,” Macron said, according to an English language translation of the video.
Je m’y étais engagé, c’est désormais voté : les réseaux sociaux seront interdits aux moins de 15 ans à la rentrée. Merci aux parlementaires. Au Conseil constitutionnel de statuer puis place à l’action pour rendre cette mesure concrète et protéger nos enfants en ligne. pic.twitter.com/jC79unxX67
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) July 21, 2026
Macron has compared the legislation to laws intended to keep kids from drinking alcohol. The drinking age in France is 18, much like other Europeans countries such as Spain and Ireland.
“Sixty years ago, kids were served wine,” Macron said in 2025 according to the New York Times. “There may still be people who serve beer to infants, but in my opinion, they are not the majority in the country today, because when families are given a standard, they know it’s not good for their children, so they won’t do it.”
As the Associated Press notes, the left wing party France Unbowed opposed the bill because it won’t allow people to be anonymous online. And that’s a big part of opposition to age verification laws for social media or pornography in the U.S. The only way to verify a person’s age is to have some form of verification that a person is who they say they are, which necessitates stripping any kind of anonymity for the user.
A ban on mobile phones in French high schools is also set to take effect for the coming school year in September. According to the AP, about 90% of kids 12-17 use smartphones and 58% access social networks via their phones.
France is unlikely to be the last country to adopt a social media ban for kids. Spain, Greece, and Denmark are all considering bans.
