France’s revised bill tests how far a member state can restrict children’s access to platforms without colliding with the EU’s Digital Services Act.
French lawmakers have reached a compromise on a social-media bill aimed at restricting access for children under 15, after earlier versions raised concerns under EU law. The French Senate announced on 20 July that a joint committee of deputies and senators had agreed on a revised text, with final votes due on 21 July.
The compromise abandons the earlier idea of a platform “blacklist” and returns to a general age-based restriction, with exceptions whose scope has been clarified. The Senate said exchanges with the European Commission, and the prospect of a wider EU framework for protecting children and teenagers, had shaped the redraft.
Associated Press reported that French lawmakers are racing to introduce the measure before the new school year, while noting that the law would still face an EU notification period and could not enter into force before 10 August. That timing matters because political urgency does not remove EU-law constraints.
The legal question is the centre of the story. Under the Digital Services Act, very large online platforms are supervised at EU level, and country-of-origin rules limit how far individual member states can impose platform-specific obligations. France’s revised approach tries to regulate access by minors themselves while leaving platform enforcement within the EU framework.
EU Today previously covered the initial French parliamentary move when MPs backed an under-15 social-media ban. The current step is materially different because the proposal has been reshaped after Commission intervention and is now moving towards final adoption.
The Senate’s own language is cautious. It says the risk of constitutional non-compliance cannot be excluded and that a referral to the Constitutional Council is probable. That means even after final parliamentary approval, the measure may face domestic legal scrutiny as well as EU procedural review.
The policy impulse is easy to understand. Governments are under pressure from parents, schools and campaigners over addictive design, harmful content, mental-health effects and age-inappropriate exposure. Several countries are exploring age-based restrictions or stronger age assurance. France wants to move quickly.
The enforcement problem is harder. A ban on minors under 15 requires age verification or age assurance. That raises privacy, identity, cybersecurity and proportionality issues. Heavy-handed checks may deter users or create databases of children’s identity information. Weak checks may be easy to bypass.
Platforms will also argue that a patchwork of national rules is difficult to implement. A 14-year-old in France, Belgium or Germany may be subject to different rules if member states proceed separately. That is why the Commission prefers EU-level tools that can apply consistently across the single market.
France’s law may therefore become both a national measure and a political lever. By legislating, Paris increases pressure on Brussels to produce a comprehensive EU framework. The Senate itself described the compromise as an additional symbolic element and an incentive for the Commission to complete its work.
The bill also includes an extension of mobile-phone restrictions in high schools. That connects social-media access with the broader debate over attention, classroom discipline and digital wellbeing. The question is whether school rules, parental tools, platform design and age restrictions can be made to work together.
France is moving faster than the EU system normally prefers. That is politically attractive but legally risky. The final test will be whether the compromise can survive constitutional review, EU notification and practical enforcement. If it does, other member states may follow. If it does not, Brussels will have stronger grounds to argue that child online-safety rules need a single European design.
The practical challenge will be enforcement. Age assurance can protect children only if it is reliable, proportionate and trusted by families. Systems that collect too much personal data risk creating new privacy problems; systems that are too light can be bypassed by children within minutes. That tension explains why the EU-law rewrite matters. France is trying to show that child protection can be made compatible with the single market and data-protection rules, rather than treated as an exception to them. The final text will therefore be watched not only by parents and platforms, but by governments searching for a legally defensible model.
