Paris Unveils 2026 Under-15 Social-Media Blackout Bill

States have repeatedly reacted to new mass media by imposing youth shields—U.S. movie-house ‘Hays Code’ rules for minors in 1930, Britain’s 1964 ban on cigarette ads near children’s TV, China’s 2021 video-game curfew—and most were driven by moral panic as much as evidence. France’s proposal fits that lineage but also the modern tussle between national sovereignty and borderless tech governed from California or Shenzhen. The bill tests whether a mid-sized EU power can enforce age-gating when VPNs and foreign servers ignore borders, and whether Brussels will again veto Paris as it did in 2023. If implemented, it could accelerate the century-long shift toward treating digital access like alcohol or driving—licensed, age-verified, and policed—reshaping norms of childhood autonomy well into the 2100s; if it fails, it may be remembered like 1996 U.S. CDA anti-porn provisions—symbolic, swiftly struck down, and a cautionary tale about overreaching in cyberspace.