France Targets Under-15 Social Media Use With Mandatory Age Verification For 2026

France is preparing to implement one of the most aggressive regulatory measures in Europe on child online safety, with the government supporting a legislative proposal to prohibit children under 15 from using social media sites as of September 2026. The move, which is on its way to parliamentary discussion, is a clear indication that the transition from voluntary platform control to legally imposed controls is now codified.

The project, which President Emmanuel Macron directly backed, is a reaction to the growing body of evidence that is damaging to mental health, contributing to sleep disorders, exacerbating cyber-bullying, and the viewing of content inappropriate to adolescents. French officials argue that self-regulatory mechanisms implemented by technology companies to date have not provided meaningful protection at scale.

Under the draft law, online platforms would be prohibited from providing social media services to users below the age threshold unless strict conditions are met. Central to the proposal is mandatory age verification. Platforms would be required to verify users’ ages and actively block underage accounts, with significant financial penalties envisaged for non-compliance.

For regulated industries and compliance leaders, this marks a notable escalation: age assurance is no longer framed as a best practice, but as a statutory duty. This method allows a minor to prove they are “under 15” or “over 15” to a platform (like TikTok or Instagram) without the platform ever seeing their name, birthdate, or ID document.

The act also extends the historic French bans on mobile phone usage in school. Phones were banned in primary and middle schools in 2018; the new proposal would extend the ban to high schools, a further extension of the government-wide campaign to reduce time at the screen during the school day. France is currently one of six member states piloting the EU’s “privacy-preserving” age-verification blueprint, which mentions Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) as a privacy-enhancing approach. ZKPs supports both to satisfy both the DSA’s safety requirements and the GDPR’s data minimization principles.

The movement in France is reflective of an increasing international trend. Since December 10, 2025, Australia has enforced a countrywide ban on access to social media by under-16s, and Malaysia has also announced its plans to introduce similar restrictions for under-16s in 2026. Macron has further indicated that France could advocate harmonised regulations on the European Union level, especially because France’s earlier approach to age restrictions adopted in 2023 faced challenges due to conflicting with the EU’s rules.

Although the public approval is high, the enforcement creates complicated concerns of privacy-saving age verification, cross-border platform compliance, and EU law conformity. For digital platforms, the message is unambiguous: child protection is moving from policy debate into hard regulatory reality.