President Emmanuel Macron of France threw his support on Wednesday behind the idea of restricting children’s access to social media, joining a list of world leaders who have made similar pledges to counter the scourge of online abuse in recent months.
“We will protect our children and teenagers from social media and screens,” he said in a speech broadcast on New Year’s Eve, in an apparent reference to draft legislation that would ban access to social media for children under 15.
The plan, which has already been proposed by other French politicians and is expected to be debated in Parliament in January, envisions implementing the ban by next September, according to French news outlets. It will also extend an existing ban on mobile phones from primary and middle schools to high schools.
The announcement came a few weeks after a social media ban for children under 16 years old officially came into force in Australia, the first country to adopt such a stringent policy. The Malaysian government has also said it intends to roll out a similar ban in January.
Lawmakers in several European countries have since expressed interest in following suit, including in Spain, Romania and in Denmark, where politicians have held detailed talks over implementing a slightly less restrictive ban than the Australian one.
In France, where 79 percent of parents support such a ban, according to a poll published in August 2025, the idea has long received widespread attention and support. A previous law to limit access to social media for children was adopted by the French Parliament in 2023, but it was never enacted because it failed to comply with European legislation.
Mr. Macron has repeatedly expressed support for some kind of digital age of majority in recent years, and made it a central part of his broader campaign against online misinformation.
During a speech about Europe at the Sorbonne University in April 2024, he said he wanted social media restrictions for children under 15 to be extended across Europe as a whole. “Would anyone send their child into the jungle at the age of 5, 10, or 12? No one in their right mind, I think,” he said, expressing concerns that children were being targeted with cyberbullying, pornographic content and pedophilia. “That’s what this space is like, because it’s not regulated and it’s not moderated either,” he added.
“It is clear that before the age of 15 or 16, social media is not a good thing,” Mr. Macron said in a more recent speech last month. “This is because at that age, we have not yet sufficiently consolidated things on an affective, emotional and cognitive level.”
Comparing the social media ban to age restrictions for alcohol consumption, he said the ban would help parents control their children’s behavior. “Sixty years ago, kids were served wine,” he said. “There may still be people who serve beer to infants, but in my opinion, they are not the majority in the country today, because when families are given a standard, they know it’s not good for their children, so they won’t do it.”
Earlier this month, French senators unanimously adopted a bill to protect children from social media and excessive exposure to screens which includes a requirement for children aged between 13 and 16 to obtain parental consent before registering on a social media platform. The bill has yet to be adopted in the lower house of the French Parliament.
Ségolène Le Stradic is a reporter and researcher covering France.
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