French president to push social media ban for children under 15

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 12, 2025 / 17:08 pm (CNA).

French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to ban social media for children under the age of 15 after a fatal knife attack at a middle school sparked debate about the psychological effects of social media on children.

“I am banning social media for children under 15,” Macron wrote in a social media post on June 10. “Platforms have the ability to verify age. Do it.”

Macron’s announcement directly followed the stabbing attack, which took place on June 10 when a 14-year-old student stabbed a 31-year-old teaching assistant during a routine bag search outside the school in Nogent, France. 

The French president condemned the “senseless wave of violence,” writing in another post after the attack: “The nation is in mourning and the government is mobilized to reduce crime.” 

France Education Minister Élisabeth Borne described the suspect as a “young man from a family where both parents work, who does not present any particular difficulties.” She further noted shock among fellow students, as the student “was very integrated in the middle school,” according to a report from France24, which noted a recent 15% jump in reports of bladed weapons in schools and a “general rise in youth crime.” 

The victim was a mother to a young boy and had been working at the school since September. 

European Union joins debate: Which countries support a ban? 

In addition to France, Spain and Greece have also signaled a desire to enact similar child-protection policies in their respective countries, according to EuroNews. However, the European Union signaled on Wednesday that it would not seek to enact an EU-wide age verification for social media, despite calls from Macron to do so as soon as possible. 

“Let’s be clear … [a] wide social media ban is not what the European Commission is doing. It’s not where we are heading to. Why? Because this is the prerogative of our member states,” commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said Wednesday.

Macron has said France “cannot wait” for the EU to reach a solution and that he plans to implement the ban regardless, according to a Politico report. 

In Australia, lawmakers sent shockwaves around the world when they passed the first-ever law banning children under the age of 16 from social media platforms in January. The Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024, which was ushered hastily through the Australian Parliament and passed in late November, is set to take effect Dec. 10. 

The plan has drawn both praise and criticism from various quarters of the world as commentators of various backgrounds and ideologies — including many Catholics — try to assess the suitability of such a ban and whether, in practice, it will actually work

At the time the legislation was passed, Archbishop Peter Comensoli of Melbourne, who leads Australia’s largest archdiocese, told CNA that the Church in Australia is actively engaged in advocating and proactively helping parents to protect their children online, including from the potential negative effects of social media and smartphone use.

“Parents share with me that it can be hard to protect their children from the potential harms of social media when they feel they’d be denying them something their peers are all using,” Comensoli told CNA. 

U.S. attitude toward social media bans

Social media bans for minors are starting to pick up across the United States including in Florida, which signed a bill last year barring children under the age of 14 from joining social media platforms. Texas is poised to enact a similar ban for anyone under the age of 18. 

While legislation in Florida has passed, it has yet to be enacted as a federal judge recently barred state officials from enforcing the law while legal challenges against it continue, according to AP news reports. 

Last year, a group of 42 state attorneys called for the U.S. surgeon general to add a health warning to algorithm-driven social media sites, citing the potential psychological harm that such sites can have on children and teenagers.

“As state attorneys general, we sometimes disagree about important issues, but all of us share an abiding concern for the safety of the kids in our jurisdictions — and algorithm-driven social media platforms threaten that safety,” the coalition of attorneys general wrote in a Sept. 9 letter to congressional leaders.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/264721/french-president-to-push-social-media-ban-for-children-under-15