French lawmakers on Monday took a first step towards banning social media for under-15s, an effort championed by President Emmanuel Macron as a way to protect children from excessive screen time.
The lower National Assembly backed key elements of the bill in a first vote after a lengthy debate. A second vote on the full text, which was proposed by centrist lawmakers, was to follow later in the session before the bill goes to the Senate, the upper house.
The legislation, which also provides for a ban on mobile phones in high schools, follows Australia's ban on social media for under-16s in December, a world first.
As social media has grown, so has concern that too much screen time is arresting child development and contributing to mental health problems.
"The emotions of our children and teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated, either by American platforms or Chinese algorithms," Macron said in a video broadcast on Saturday.
The late Monday vote was 116 for the ban and 23 against it.
Authorities want the measures to be enforced from the start of the 2026 school year for new accounts.
Former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who leads Macron´s Renaissance party in the lower house, said he hoped the Senate would pass the bill by mid-February so that the ban could come into force for new accounts on September 1.
He added that "social media platforms will then have until December 31 to deactivate existing accounts" that do not comply with the age limit.
In addition to combatting the impact of screens and social media on the mental health of young adolescents, Attal stressed that the measure would counter "a number of powers that, through social media platforms, want to colonise minds".
"France can be a pioneer in Europe in a month: we can change the lives of our young people and our families, and perhaps also change the destiny of our country in terms of independence," he said.
France's public health watchdog ANSES said this month that social media such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram had numerous detrimental effects on adolescents — particularly girls — while not being the sole reason for their declining mental health.
The risks listed include cyberbullying and exposure to violent content.
The legislation stipulates that "access to an online social networking service provided by an online platform is prohibited for minors under the age of 15".
The draft bill excludes online encyclopaedias and educational directories from the ban.
For the ban to become a reality, an effective age verification system will have to be implemented. Work on such a system is currently underway at the European level.
Macron has also backed a ban on pupils having mobile phones in high schools.
In 2018, France banned children from using mobile phones in "colleges", the schools attended between the ages of 11 and 15.
But former prime minister Elisabeth Borne expressed reservations about the measure on Monday.
"It's more complicated than that," she told broadcaster France 2.
"We first need to make sure that the ban is properly enforced in middle schools."
