France has enacted a sweeping law banning children under the age of 15 from accessing social media platforms, making it one of the most stringent digital-age restrictions passed by a major democratic government. The legislation cleared the French parliament and requires social media companies to implement age-verification mechanisms to block underage users.

Under the new law, platforms found to be allowing children under 15 to create or maintain accounts face significant regulatory consequences. French officials framed the measure as a necessary step to protect minors from the well-documented harms associated with excessive social media use, including mental health impacts, exposure to harmful content, and addictive design features.

The legislation passed with broad political support across the French political spectrum, reflecting a growing consensus among lawmakers that self-regulation by technology companies has been insufficient to protect young users. France joins a small but expanding group of countries — including Australia — that have moved to impose hard age limits on social media access rather than relying on parental controls or platform guidelines.

Implementation details, including exactly how platforms will be required to verify ages without compromising user privacy, remain a key challenge. Critics of similar laws elsewhere have raised concerns about the practicality of enforcement and the potential for age-verification systems to expose sensitive personal data. Supporters argue that the burden should fall on platforms rather than on parents or children.