A French parliamentary reconciliation committee has approved a bill that would ban children under 15 from accessing social media, moving the proposal closer to final adoption.
President Emmanuel Macron wants the ban to be in force by the start of the school year in early September. The reconciled text is expected to be debated in the National Assembly on Tuesday before later moving to the Senate.
Under the bill, France’s information technology minister would draw up a list of social networks covered by the ban. Platforms would also be required to introduce age-verification systems approved by France’s privacy regulator.
The bill would also ban smartphone use in high schools.
France would follow Australia, which adopted the world’s first social media ban for under-16s on platforms including Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.
Macron has pushed for wider support for age limits on social media in Europe. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has also backed restrictions on children’s access to social platforms across the EU.
