French court overturns social media Ban for under-15s

Paris, Aug 14 (EFE).- France’s top court on Friday struck down a law banning social media access for children under 15, saying the measure disproportionately infringed on freedom of expression and did not provide sufficient safeguards for privacy.

In its ruling, the Constitutional Council also justified the annulment of the central provision on the grounds that it failed to provide adequate legal guarantees to protect the right to privacy.

The judges acknowledged that the constitution requires the protection of “the best interests of the child” and that this can justify restricting minors’ access to social networks, but said the restriction could not be imposed in the manner provided for by the law.

The council said lawmakers can establish mechanisms to prevent abuses of freedom of expression and communication when they threaten public order or the rights of others, including minors.

However, it stressed that freedom of expression “is a condition of democracy and one of the guarantees for the respect of other rights and freedoms.”

In the case of the law, which parliament definitively adopted on July 21, the Constitutional Council objected to the blanket nature of the prohibition.

The measure would have deprived minors of access to “numerous online communication services” without taking into account their individual circumstances or the specific risks posed by each service.

In other words, children would have been denied access to online services for which it had not been established that they posed risks to minors’ health or safety.

The council also questioned the application of the ban to all children under 15 without assessing individual risk according to factors such as “their age, their degree of maturity and their family situation.”

This would have prevented parents or other holders of parental authority from lifting the ban, limiting its scope or authorizing access to specific social networks.

In an initial reaction to the ruling, French President Emmanuel Macron, the main promoter of the legislation, said he had instructed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to work as soon as possible on new “legally robust” wording that takes the council’s objections and the “European framework” into account.

In a statement, the Élysée Palace said that, based on the conclusions presented by Lecornu, Macron’s government and parliament would have to determine the way forward to ensure that, by the end of his mandate in May 2027, the government can “protect our children from social networks.”

The presidency also stressed Macron’s “determination to push forward this reform by spring 2027 remains total.”

The law struck down by the Constitutional Council would have prohibited children under 15 from accessing social networking services offered by digital platforms, while exempting certain services, including online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia, free software development, and distribution platforms, and open-source educational projects.

The legislation did not establish a specific age-verification system, leaving platforms such as Facebook and TikTok responsible for implementing mechanisms to verify users’ ages. EFE

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