France Moves to Enforce Under-15 Social-Media Ban by September 2026

States restricting children’s exposure to new industries is hardly new: Prussia’s 1839 factory act capped child labor at 10 hours, and the U.S. 1998 COPPA law tried to fence kids off from online data collection. Macron’s push sits in that lineage but also in the EU’s 25-year campaign (from the 1995 Data-Protection Directive to the 2024 Digital Services Act) to assert sovereignty over largely U.S.- and China-based platforms. The measure reinforces two long-term trends: the gradual transformation of the internet from a self-regulated commons into a space policed by age gates and liability rules, and Europe’s willingness to legislate first and test technical feasibility later. Whether the ban endures—COPA was struck down as unenforceable in 2009—will hinge on robust age-verification tech and EU-law compatibility; teenagers’ work-arounds may expose the policy’s limits. Still, on a 100-year horizon it signals the shift toward treating digital engagement like alcohol, gambling or tobacco: an activity the state may ration for minors, foreshadowing an internet that by 2100 could resemble a regulated utility more than today’s algorithmic bazaar.