World

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.

SEOUL, Jan. 26 (UPI) — South Korea’s cash-strapped discount chain Home Plus said Monday that it was waiting for an infusion of $210 million emergency operating funds from its stakeholders and state-run Korea Development Bank.

The retailer requested its shareholder, MBK Partners, creditor Meritz Financial Group, and KDB each to provide $70 million to help the company stay afloat while it searches for a new owner.

MBK Partners has pledged to offer its share of the funding, but Meritz and KDB have yet to disclose their positions, according to Home Plus.

Speaking at a National Assembly meeting last Wednesday, Home Plus CEO Joh Joo-yun said that the company is in a grave situation.

“Deliveries to Home Plus stores have plunged to about half their previous levels,” she said. “If emergency funding is not secured within January, we may be unable to pay employee wages or even settle payments for merchandise.”

Under such circumstances, Joh worried that it might be impossible to achieve a turnaround.

Meanwhile, the Seoul Central District Court earlier this month rejected prosecutors’ requests for arrest warrants for MBK Partners Chairman Michael Byungjoo Kim and other executives from the private equity fund and its portfolio company Home Plus.

Prosecutors sought to detain them in connection with asset-backed bonds issued by Home Plus in February, shortly before the firm filed for court receivership in early March.

They argued that such conduct may have exposed investors to potential losses, constituting fraud and violations of the relevant laws.

However, the court stressed the need to ensure that the suspects have sufficient opportunity to defend themselves without being held in custody.

In 2015, MBK took over Home Plus from Tesco in a deal valued at roughly $5 billion. In recent years, the retailer has faced mounting difficulties due to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and intensifying competition from e-commerce rivals.

Against this backdrop, Home Plus has sought to find a new buyer, but such efforts have so far made little progress.