France will not be able to ban social media for under-15s

France’s Constitutional Council has overturned a law banning children under the age of 15 from accessing social media, ruling that the measure violated fundamental rights to freedom of expression and communication.

The legislation had been approved by French lawmakers in July and would have made France the first European country to introduce a nationwide ban of this kind, amid growing concerns over the impact of social media on children and teenagers.

The Constitutional Council’s decision, issued on Friday, puts an end to the ban that President Emmanuel Macron had pledged to introduce gradually from September.

Macron calls for a new law

Following the ruling, Macron immediately asked Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to prepare a new bill taking into account all the observations made by the Constitutional Council.

The nine-member body, which is responsible for ensuring that legislation complies with the French Constitution, had been consulted after Lecornu referred several provisions of the law adopted by Parliament to it.

The Constitutional Council ruled that Article 1 of the legislation infringed freedom of expression and communication and that the measure was not “appropriate, necessary or proportionate” to achieve the objectives pursued.

The ruling also questioned the requirement for users to prove their age in order to access online services, stating that the legislation did not provide the “necessary legal safeguards”.

The Élysée Palace said the French government would work “as quickly as possible” on a new bill and reiterated Macron’s determination to ensure that a revised measure could come into force at the beginning of 2027.

The ban was due to start in September

Under the original proposal, children under 15 would have been prevented from opening new social media accounts from September, while platforms would have been required to verify users’ ages.

From January, the ban would also have applied to accounts that already existed.

The initiative had faced significant criticism, particularly over the practical difficulties of enforcing it, user privacy concerns, the effectiveness of age-verification systems and the risk that minors could find ways to circumvent the restrictions.