France’s National Assembly approved a bill in an overnight marathon session that would set a minimum age for using social media, making it the first European country to follow Australia, which banned under-16s from platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Facebook last year.
Parents keen to curb their kids’ phone use cautiously welcomed the measure, which was championed by President Emmanuel Macron and must now pass the Senate, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
The legislation’s targets themselves were divided — some acknowledging the dangers social media can bring, others venting their incomprehension and plotting ways to get around a ban.
Esther, a high school student in Paris, said the idea was “super” — on paper.
“But the problem is, when (kids) turn 15, they’re going to get submerged by this wave. That’s the year you start high school, and you need to be focussing on other things besides social media. They should ban it for under-14s instead,” she said.
And not all social networks are equal, she insisted.
“The ones where you scroll non-stop (should be banned), because that’s what ruins your brain,” she said. But other apps “are key for social life”.
That view is shared by 11-year-old middle-schooler Aya, also from Paris.
“Social media makes some kids crazy, they stop doing anything else. And there are disgusting things on TikTok, it’s not appropriate for kids,” she said.
But “at the same time, it’s important in an emergency. I use WhatsApp to talk to my parents. They’re not going to ban WhatsApp, are they?”
WhatsApp and other private messaging platforms are not covered by the ban.
At a high school in Marseille, one 16-year-old said she had already imposed a ban on herself.
“I deleted TikTok, it was taking up too much of my time,” she said.
“I couldn’t get my homework done, my head was always somewhere else… Honestly, I think it’s a great idea.”
An August 2025 poll found 79 percent of parents and 67 percent of young people in France favoured a social media ban for under-15s.
Polling firm Odoxa found 46 percent of young people said they had felt low self-esteem comparing themselves to others on social networks, and 18 percent said they had been harassed or insulted online.
