The proposed legislation would also forbid smartphones in high schools
France’s lower house of parliament has given the green light to a bill that bans social media use for children under 15, a measure supported by President Emmanuel Macron to cut down on excessive screen time.
The National Assembly passed the legislation 130 to 21 in an overnight session from Monday to Tuesday. The bill now advances to the Senate before it can turn into law.
If approved by the Senate, France would become the second country after Australia to impose nationwide social media restrictions for children.
The legislation would also forbid smartphones in all French high schools. Macron has urged lawmakers to expedite the bill so it can come into effect by the start of the school year in September.
In a video shared with broadcaster BFMTV on Saturday, Macron said children’s brains and emotions “are not for sale” and should not be manipulated “by American platforms nor Chinese algorithms.”
France’s public health agency, ANSES, said earlier this month that platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram can have harmful impacts on adolescents, especially girls.
The French legislation comes during a growing international drive to regulate children’s online activity. Australia became the first country to prevent children under 16 from platforms including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook in December. Companies that don’t comply face fines of up to A$50 million ($33 million).
US and Chinese social media giants Meta, TikTok, and YouTube are also facing their very first product liability trial in Los Angeles over claims they knowingly designed their platforms to be addictive to children.
Meta is under increasing regulatory and legal examination worldwide. In the EU, the company has been slapped with a €797 million antitrust fine related to Facebook Marketplace and is the subject of separate copyright, data-protection, and targeted advertising cases in Spain, France, Germany, and Norway.
TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, has faced a series of lawsuits since its launch, including cases centered on its data-collection practices. In the US, the platform and its parent company have been sued over allegations they failed to sufficiently protect children’s privacy.