French President Emmanuel Macron has urged the European Commission to accelerate an EU-wide social media ban for children under 15, renewing his push for age restrictions after France’s Constitutional Council struck down the country’s domestic legislation.
In an August 29 letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, disclosed on Tuesday, Macron called for urgent European legislation and said France remained committed to restricting minors’ access to social platforms. He also confirmed that he had asked his government to rewrite the French measure for consideration this autumn.
The appeal follows the Constitutional Council’s August 14 decision invalidating the under-15 ban. The council found that the law disproportionately restricted freedom of expression and failed to provide sufficient privacy safeguards.
French lawmakers had adopted the measure in July, with implementation intended to begin at the start of the September school year. The ruling prevented that timetable from taking effect and required the government to revisit both the scope of the restriction and the protections surrounding its enforcement.
Age assurance was central to the legal questions raised by the French measure. Enforcing a minimum age requires platforms to distinguish between users above and below the threshold, while the council’s ruling addressed the protection of personal information involved in those checks.
Macron’s campaign predates the legislation. In June 2025, he called for European action and discussed facial recognition and identity documents as possible enforcement tools. He said France would pursue its own restrictions if a coordinated European approach did not emerge.
The proposal also followed recommendations from France’s Screens Commission, a panel of specialists that examined children’s exposure to digital services. Its work included a recommended minimum age of 15 for full access to social media, placing age-based restrictions within a broader debate over children’s online activity.
Von der Leyen has separately described European work on rules governing social media business models to protect minors. Macron’s letter presses for a specific under-15 access restriction alongside that wider effort.
Macron has instructed the government to find a route that complies with both EU law and the French Constitution. The proposed autumn timetable is the next step in France’s attempt to establish an enforceable age restriction.
Sources: Reuters via Boursorama
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
