France to Revive Social Media Ban for Under-15s After Constitutional Council Ruling
Macron: "New Bill Notified to the EU Commission"
Aims for Implementation Before May Next Year
The French government is pushing forward once again with its policy to ban social media (SNS) use for minors under the age of 15, a measure that was previously ruled unconstitutional.
According to AFP, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on September 14 (local time) via X (formerly Twitter), "Following a rigorous technical review, the government is notifying the European Commission today of the new bill."
This notification procedure is a key legislative step to ensure that national laws do not conflict with European Union (EU) regulations.
President Macron has made the ban on social media use for minors a top priority and has expressed hopes for it to take effect before his term ends in May next year.
The initial bill, which was first advanced, prohibited minors under the age of 15 from creating social media accounts and mandated the closure of existing accounts after a grace period. The bill passed both the upper and lower houses of parliament in July.
However, France's Constitutional Council, the country’s top constitutional body, ruled on August 14 that the legislation constituted an "inappropriate, unnecessary, and disproportionate" infringement on minors' freedom of expression and communication, thus declaring it unconstitutional.
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The Council did not dispute the need to protect minors from the risks of social media, but interpreted the bill's blanket ban as an undue restriction of basic rights. In response, the Macron administration announced plans to revise and reintroduce the legislation.
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