France's Constitutional Council strikes down the social media ban for under-15s

France's Constitutional Council has struck down the law banning access to social networks for children under fifteen. The text was due to come into force on 1 September.

The judges held that the ban infringes minors' freedom of expression and communication in a way that is not appropriate, not necessary and not proportionate. The wording echoes the classic proportionality test: a restriction of rights must be suitable for its purpose, indispensable and commensurate with the result it seeks. In the Council's view the law failed all three steps.

The measure covered the main platforms used by teenagers, among them TikTok, Snapchat, X, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp and Messenger. It was one of the points Emmanuel Macron had invested in most heavily in his political communication over the past year.

A rewrite by spring

The president has instructed prime minister Sébastien Lecornu to work as quickly as possible on a legally robust rewrite of the law, aiming for a new text by spring 2027. The referral to the Constitutional Council had been lodged by Socialist deputies and by those of the radical left party La France Insoumise, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

The technical difficulty remains the one that has blocked similar measures elsewhere: verifying users' ages without building a system of general identification that collects identity documents from everyone, minors and adults alike. It is the point on which Australia chose to proceed anyway and on which the European Union is examining verification tools that do not pass identity data to the platform.

Switzerland has no ban of this kind. The law on protecting minors in film and video games, in force since 2025, provides for age verification systems for specific content, while access to social networks remains governed by the platforms' own terms of service.