French Parliament Approves EU’s First Blanket Social-Media Ban for Under-15s

France’s step echoes earlier protective waves—Britain’s 1833 Factory Act or the 1998 U.S. COPPA law—that imposed age-based limits on new technologies deemed harmful to minors. It sits at the intersection of two long arcs: states reclaiming digital sovereignty from global platforms, and a century-long tightening of child-protection norms every time media evolve (comic-book codes in 1954, Saturday-morning TV rules in 1974, Australia’s under-16 ban in 2025). Whether enforcement succeeds will forecast the viability of age-gating at scale—a tool Brussels, Washington and Beijing all eye to police AI, porn and gambling. If the ban proves workable, historians in 2126 may cite 2026 as the moment “digital majority” (age 15 or 16) became as standard as driving or drinking ages; if it collapses under privacy challenges or easy circumvention, it will join Prohibition-era overreach as a cautionary tale of regulatory zeal outrunning technical reality.