banning

France weighs banning children under 15 from social media

Jan. 26 (UPI) — French President Emmanuel Macron wants children under the age of 15 off of social media by the start of the next school year and lawmakers are ready to consider it on Monday.

Parliament member Laure Miller will bring a bill to the table on Monday that would bar children under 15 from using social media. The bill would also ban smartphones from all high schools.

Miller headed the parliamentary committee that investigated the psychological effects of social media on children last year. The committee determined that exposure to social media can have an affect on mental health.

Macron has asked lawmakers to move quickly on the bill, hoping to see it in effect by the start of the next school year.

“Our children and teens’ brains are not for sale,” Macron said in a video statement. “Our children and teens’ emotions are not for sale or to be manipulated. Not by American platforms or Chinese algorithms.”

If the law passes, France would join Australia in restricting children’s access to social media. Australia enacted a social media ban for children under 16 years old in December.

Similar measures are being discussed throughout Europe.

Under France’s proposed law, its media regulators would draft a list of social media platforms to be banned outright for children under the age of 15. These would be the platforms that regulators consider the most harmful to the mental and emotional health of children.

Regulators would draft a second list of platforms that they consider less harmful. These sites would be accessible with the permission of a parent.

The bill’s first test is in parliament, which must approve the text. If the text passes, it will move to the Senate chamber in February.

France mulled a similar social media ban in 2023 but the courts ruled it did not comply with the laws of the European Union, specifically the Digital Services Act.

The guidelines of the Digital Services Act were loosened last year, giving governments more leeway to set age limits for social media use.

Picketers hold signs outside at the entrance to Mount Sinai Hospital on Monday in New York City. Nearly 15,000 nurses across New York City are now on strike after no agreement was reached ahead of the deadline for contract negotiations. It is the largest nurses’ strike in NYC’s history. The hospital locations impacted by the strike include Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside, Mount Sinai West, Montefiore Hospital and New York Presbyterian Hospital. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

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