French legislators have approved a groundbreaking bill intending to restrict social media access for children under 15, a measure strongly supported by President Emmanuel Macron to address concerns over excessive screen time.

In an extensive overnight session from Monday into Tuesday, the National Assembly, France’s lower house, voted in favor of the proposal with 130 votes for and 21 against.

The bill will next be reviewed by the Senate, the upper chamber of the French Parliament, before it can be enacted into law.

President Macron took to X to celebrate the vote, describing it as a “significant advancement” in safeguarding the well-being of French youth.

This proposed law, which also includes a ban on mobile phones in high schools, positions France to become the second nation to implement such restrictions, following Australia’s similar ban for those under 16, initiated in December.

The rise of social media has fueled worries about its potential impact on children’s development, with excessive screen time and engaging algorithms being linked to mental health challenges.

As social media has grown, so has concern that too much screen time and addictive algorithms are harming child development and contributing to mental health problems.

“The emotions of our children and teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated, either by American platforms or Chinese algorithms,” Macron said in a video broadcast on Saturday.

Authorities want the measures to be enforced from the start of the 2026 school year, in September, for new accounts.

Enforcement to lie with the EU

Former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who leads Macron’s Renaissance party in the lower house, said he hoped the Senate would pass the bill by mid-February so that the ban could come into force on 1 September.

He added that “social media platforms will then have until 31 December to deactivate existing accounts” that do not comply with the age limit.

While backing France’s right to impose such a ban, the European Commission on Tuesday said that any enforcement would lie with the EU, provided the bill conforms to the bloc’s laws.

Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters it would ultimately be up to the EU to ensure that platforms implement adequate age-verification tools to help any ban become a reality.

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