France’s Constitutional Council Blocks Under-15 Social Ban

France’s planned social media ban for children and teens under 15 is not set to begin on September 1 after the country’s Constitutional Council ruled a key article of the law unconstitutional. President Emmanuel Macron says the proposal will be revised.

Constitutional Council strikes down the core access ban

The Constitutional Council rejected Article 1 of France’s law aimed at protecting minors from the risks of social networks. As a result, both the blanket access prohibition for under-15s and the age-check requirement tied to it are no longer part of the law.

The court acknowledged that lawmakers can take steps to protect children and young people from online risks. However, it said the chosen approach was not properly balanced: it would have barred minors under 15 from access to nearly all social platforms regardless of a child’s individual maturity, the specific network, or whether parents chose to allow access.

The council concluded that such a broad restriction goes too far by infringing on freedom of expression and communication. It stressed that online services can be important for democratic participation and idea exchange, which includes access to these kinds of platforms. It also found that carve-outs—such as for online encyclopedias, educational and scientific services, and platforms distributing free software—did not change the overall assessment.

Quick facts

France’s Constitutional Council invalidated Article 1 of the minors’ social media protection law
The ruling removes both the under-15 access ban and the related age verification duty
The council said the blanket rule was disproportionate and infringed freedom of expression and communication
It also criticized the law’s privacy safeguards around age checks
Macron has ordered a legally robust rewrite that also accounts for EU rules

Age verification requirements ruled insufficient

A second major problem was how age checks would work in practice. The Constitutional Council said that to reliably keep minors out, users would generally have to prove their age. But it found that the law did not define clearly enough when and under what constraints that proof would be collected and handled.

Because the legislation lacked adequate legal guarantees to protect privacy, the court struck down the provision. That flaw had already been flagged earlier: in July, uncertainty remained about how the age threshold would be technically verified.

EU concerns added to the legal roadblock

The rejection also follows earlier concerns tied to European law. The EU Commission’s view, as reflected in the reporting, was that France could not impose age-check obligations on many platforms on its own under EU rules. With the Constitutional Council’s decision, the plan failed on both the French constitutional and broader legal fronts.

Macron wants a revised plan, potentially before 2027

President Macron says he does not intend to drop the age limit. The Élysée Palace says he instructed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to draft a new version as quickly as possible that can withstand both the Constitutional Council’s objections and the EU legal framework. No specific new timetable was announced.

Reporting indicates the revised approach would aim to be implemented before France’s presidential election in spring 2027.

France’s effort is modeled on Australia, where social networks already face an age requirement of 16. Early findings there showed limited impact: within the first three months, actual usage by children and teens fell from 85.9% to 81.5%.