After Australia, France plans social media ban for children under 15

After Australia, France is planning to ban social media for children under 15 years of age. According to a report by Reuters, France also plans to prohibit mobile phones in high schools from September 2026. Quoting local media, the news agency said that the move comes amid rising public angst over the impact of online harms on minors. Notably, the country has already banned smartphones in French primary and middle schools since 2018 and now wants to extend the ban to high schools.According to the Reuters report, President Emmanuel Macron has often pointed to social media as one of the factors to blame for violence among young people. In a New Year's Eve address, he pledged to "protect our children and teenagers from social media and screens", though he did not reference the legislative push. The Macron government plans to submit a draft legislation for legal checks in early January, Le Monde and France Info reported, per Reuters report. The country had passed a law in 2023 requiring social platforms to obtain parental consent for under-15s to create accounts, though technical challenges have impeded its enforcement.In June 2025, Macron said that he will push for social media regulation for all under 15 at the level of the European Union. The remarks were made after a fatal stabbing at a school in eastern France shocked the nation. In November, the European Parliament asked the EU to set minimum ages for children to access social media to combat a rise in mental health problems among adolescents from excessive exposure.