Technology & Science
French National Assembly Approves Under-15 Social-Media Ban
In an overnight vote on 26–27 Jan 2026, France’s lower house passed a bill 130–21 that would bar anyone under 15 from creating or keeping social-media accounts and aims to activate the ban by 1 Sep 2026.
Focusing Facts
- The bill now moves to the Senate, with the government invoking a fast-track so it can clear both chambers by mid-February 2026.
- If enacted, France would become the second country to impose such a nationwide restriction, following Australia’s under-16 ban that took effect in Dec 2025.
- Platforms would have until 31 Dec 2026 to shut down non-compliant existing accounts, pending an EU-wide age-verification system.
Context
Paris’ move echoes earlier moral-panic legislation such as the 1936 French decree limiting cinema access for minors after concerns about “decadent” American films, and the 1998 U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act; each tried to retrofit child-protection norms onto disruptive media technologies. Over the past two decades Europe has steadily shifted from laissez-faire internet governance toward muscular digital sovereignty—the GDPR in 2016, the Digital Services Act in 2022, and now age-gating efforts that extend that logic to children’s mental health and geostrategic worries about U.S./Chinese platforms. Whether the law survives EU legal scrutiny or the practical challenge of verifying millions of teens matters less than the precedent: states are asserting that protecting minors outweighs the once-sacrosanct principle of unfettered online expression. On a century horizon, this represents a swing of the regulatory pendulum—technology liberalises, society reacts—suggesting future networks (AR, brain-computer interfaces) will likely meet similar age-based firewalls rather than the early-internet ideal of borderless freedom.
Perspectives
Centrist / establishment mainstream outlets
e.g., Yahoo News, CNA, Japan Today — Present the bill as a sensible, "major step" to shield youngsters from screen-induced mental-health harms and foreign algorithmic influence, echoing Macron’s framing. Coverage largely reproduces government talking-points and public-health alarms while downplaying enforcement hurdles or free-speech worries, reflecting a tendency to favour regulatory action that polls well.
Left-leaning media
e.g., The Guardian — Acknowledge the child-protection intent but foreground dissenting voices who call the measure “digital paternalism” and question whether a blanket ban is an oversimplified answer to deeper tech problems. By spotlighting critics and civil-liberty angles, this coverage may understate parental and public support, consistent with a progressive skepticism toward bans that restrict individual autonomy.
French hard-left opposition voices quoted in international reports
e.g., LFI comments in Deccan Chronicle, The Korea Times — Condemn the proposal as an authoritarian overreach that distracts from holding profit-driven platforms accountable for harms. Their rhetoric positions them against Macron’s agenda and appeals to digital-rights constituencies, but offers few concrete alternatives beyond critiquing the centrist government’s motives.