Jan. 27 (UPI) — Legislators in France took the first step toward becoming the first European country to block children from social media with a ban that would take effect at the beginning of the new school year in September.
National Assembly members voted 116-23 for the ban for children younger than 15, which was introduced by a lawmaker representing France’s Champagne region in President Emmanuel Macron‘s Renaissance party, late Monday.
The MPs amended the bill to empower the country’s media regulator to decide which social media services will be included in the ban and not limited to just those most popular with teens such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram.
The law would use an as-yet-undecided method of age-verification to block children from accessing those sites the regulator determines are most harmful to children’s mental and emotional health.
An existing smartphone ban for children in junior and middle schools would also be extended to high schools, under the legislation.
Children younger than 15 would be permitted to continue to use platforms on a second list deemed to pose less risk to them, but only if their parents give their consent.
Hailing the vote as a “major step,” Macron urged the Senate, the upper house, where it must also pass to become law, to follow suit and vowed to make sure it was implemented in time for the start of the fall semester.
“To ensure that this ban is effective from the start of the next academic year, I have asked the government to activate the accelerated procedure,” he posted on X.
“Because our children’s brains are not for sale. Not to American platforms, nor to Chinese networks. Because their dreams cannot be dictated by algorithms. Because we do not want an anxious generation,” Macron added.
Fastracking the law will enable it to leapfrog over a logjam in the assembly which has been unable to pass a budget for this year.
National Assembly Deputy Laure Miller, sponsor of the bill, complained afterward that opponents attempted to run the debate, which went on for almost seven hours, off the clock, knowing they would lose when it came to a vote.
“We explained everything to you, but you didn’t want to listen. Obstruction, off-topic remarks, conspiracy-laden speeches… above all, you tried everything to avoid having to vote on this text. Pathetic,” she wrote online.
Miller headed a committee probe into the psychological impact of social media on children that issued its report earlier this month.
MP Louis Boyard from the populist France Insoumise party said the bill had been rushed through.
By granting blanket verification powers to the government and the European Union to check the ages of all social media users, regardless of age, Macronist deputies were sleepwalking France into a surveillance state,” he said on X.
“The Macronists refused to respond or speak in order to have it voted on as quickly as possible. Under the pretext of banning social networks for those under 15, the Macronists seem to be preparing to have everyone monitored.”
He urged the Senate to send it back to the assembly to allow a “more enlightened” public debate to take place.
“The subject is too important to be rushed,” added Boyard, who represents a different district of the same region as Miller.
The development in France comes amid similar efforts being weighed across Europe, including in Greece, Spain, Denmark, Ireland, and Britain, where the House of Lords voted through a ban for children under 16 on Wednesday.
Lawmakers in the upper chamber of parliament passed the amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill by 261 votes to 150, however, the government signaled it intended to overturn the effort in the House of Commons, the lower house.
The move came two days after the government launched a consultation on a potential ban for under-16s in the wake of the lead taken by Australia, which last month became the first Western country to implement such a ban.
