Macron asks European Commission to pursue social media ban for children under 15
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The Facts
- Macron asked the European Commission for EU legislation restricting social-media access for children under 15.
- Macron sent the request to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a letter dated August 29.
- Macron proposed harmonizing the under-15 restriction across European Union member states.
- France’s Constitutional Council struck down a national bill containing a similar under-15 social-media restriction.
- The French bill was blocked before its planned September implementation.
- Macron said he intends to seek a revised French legislative measure in the autumn.
- Macron’s proposal would affect children under 15 across the European Union.
Context
Why is Macron seeking EU-level legislation?
Macron’s request followed the French Constitutional Council’s decision to strike down France’s proposed national restriction. He argued that EU legislation could establish a harmonized rule across the bloc. Reuters Times of India
What would the proposed EU rule do?
Macron asked for a European legislative text that would prohibit access to social-media platforms for children under 15. Reuters Le Monde
What happens next in France?
Macron has said he wants to pursue a revised national bill in the autumn that respects EU law and France’s Constitution. Le Parisien SudOuest.fr
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- Macron's August 29 letter seeks to harmonize an under-15 social-media restriction across the EU after France's own similar bill was struck down domestically.
- Where Left and Right split
- Protecting children from platforms built to exploit them, or a blunt restriction that burdens young people's own right to access and connection.
- Why they won’t converge
- The split rests on values, not facts: whether protecting minors from platform design justifies restricting their access, or whether restricting access itself wrongs them, is a disagreement no legal ruling can settle.
How left and right read it
Young people's access to the places where they talk to each other is a right worth defending, and a blanket cutoff at 15 is a blunt instrument aimed at them rather than at the platforms. France's own Constitutional Council struck down a national bill carrying a similar under-15 restriction, so the answer to a domestic legal defeat should not be to harmonize the same restriction across every member state. The burden falls on those proposing to lock children out.
Childhood is not a market segment, and a fifteen-year-old is not a consenting adult. That premise is why Macron's August 29 letter asks the Commission to harmonize an under-15 limit across member states instead of leaving each country alone with it, and why, after the Constitutional Council struck the French bill before its September start, he means to come back with a revised measure in the autumn. Who else will carry that burden?
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Independent coverage (69)
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