--- title: France’s under-15 social media ban is struck down two... description: France's Constitutional Council struck down the law banning social media accounts for under-15s, two weeks before its 1 September start date, ruling the... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/france-s-under-15-social-media-ban-is-struck-down-two-weeks-before-it-starts-ggqimt4oa twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: France’s under-15 social media ban is struck down two weeks before it starts | daily.dev og:description: France's Constitutional Council struck down the law banning social media accounts for under-15s, two weeks before its 1 September start date, ruling the... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/france-s-under-15-social-media-ban-is-struck-down-two-weeks-before-it-starts-ggqimt4oa og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/GGQimt4oa.png og:image:alt: France’s under-15 social media ban is struck down two weeks before it starts og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # France’s under-15 social media ban is struck down two weeks before it starts **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary France's Constitutional Council struck down the law banning social media accounts for under-15s, two weeks before its 1 September start date, ruling the restriction disproportionate to freedom of expression and lacking adequate privacy guarantees for age verification. The ban would have covered TikTok, Snapchat, X, Instagram, YouTube's social features and messaging apps like WhatsApp and Messenger. La France Insoumise brought the constitutional challenge. The separate school smartphone ban for lycées still takes effect 1 September, unaffected by the ruling. Parliament would need to draft a narrower law tied to established risks and stronger legal guarantees to revive the ban; the EU is separately weighing its own age-limit proposal. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why did France's Constitutional Council strike down the under-15 social media ban? The Council found the ban disproportionate and unnecessary, ruling it an infringement on freedom of expression that was not suited, necessary, or proportionate to its goal. The law covered services like TikTok, Snapchat, X, Instagram, YouTube's social features, and messaging apps such as WhatsApp without establishing that each posed the same health or safety risks to minors. The Council also found the age-verification requirements lacked sufficient legal guarantees to protect users' privacy. _daily.dev helps developers building age-verification or content-moderation features track how regulators define compliance._ ### What was the enforcement mechanism for France's social media age ban before it was struck down? Enforcement relied on the EU Digital Services Act rather than dedicated fines, since Parliament stripped out the original age-verification mandate to Arcom and removed penalties for parental negligence before the final vote. Verification was left to platforms, subject to CNIL approval, with no specific method required, meaning document checks or facial age estimation would both have qualified. _Teams building age-verification compliance follow enforcement mechanisms like these on daily.dev before shipping._ ### How does France's under-15 social media ban compare to Australia's under-16 ban in terms of penalties and effectiveness? Australia's under-16 ban carries fines up to A$49.5 million, while France's law contained no fines in its text at all, relying instead on the EU Digital Services Act's penalties of up to 6% of global turnover. Despite Australia's stronger enforcement, a study six months after implementation found 85% of that age group were still using the banned platforms. _Developers weighing platform compliance across jurisdictions track these regulatory comparisons on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@springtofigh** · 0 upvotes > France's Constitutional Council's defense was excellent👌 ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [France moves a step closer to banning under-15s from social media](https://daily.dev/posts/france-moves-a-step-closer-to-banning-under-15s-from-social-media-5fvffg3zb) · The Next Web · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [France targets Australia-style social media ban for children next year](https://daily.dev/posts/france-targets-australia-style-social-media-ban-for-children-next-year-4duqu2e3b) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [These are the countries moving to ban social media for children](https://daily.dev/posts/these-are-the-countries-moving-to-ban-social-media-for-children-5xd0ebpq1) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Turkey’s social media ban for under-15s starts on 1 November](https://daily.dev/posts/turkey-s-social-media-ban-for-under-15s-starts-on-1-november-hqd56eq2m) · The Next Web · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [World’s first teen social media ban is failing](https://daily.dev/posts/world-s-first-teen-social-media-ban-is-failing-tg5icr5sr) · TechCentral · 22 upvotes · 7 comments --- Tags: [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/france-s-under-15-social-media-ban-is-struck-down-two-weeks-before-it-starts-ggqimt4oa) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"France’s under-15 social media ban is struck down two weeks before it starts","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/france-s-under-15-social-media-ban-is-struck-down-two-weeks-before-it-starts-ggqimt4oa","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/france-s-under-15-social-media-ban-is-struck-down-two-weeks-before-it-starts-ggqimt4oa"},"datePublished":"2026-08-14T14:08:09.479Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T08:36:36.152Z","description":"France's Constitutional Council struck down the law banning social media accounts for under-15s, two weeks before its 1 September start date, ruling the...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/441e57effee454f4bf5e3b2f3defd1eb?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/441e57effee454f4bf5e3b2f3defd1eb?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":1,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/france-s-under-15-social-media-ban-is-struck-down-two-weeks-before-it-starts-ggqimt4oa","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}],"keywords":"privacy","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"France’s under-15 social media ban is struck down two weeks before it starts"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/france-s-under-15-social-media-ban-is-struck-down-two-weeks-before-it-starts-ggqimt4oa","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"France’s Constitutional Council’s defense was excellent👌","datePublished":"2026-08-15T20:55:42.797Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/GGQimt4oa#c-BzDBETUC6","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Spring Tofigh","url":"https://daily.dev/springtofigh","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/90114320?v=4"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/france-s-under-15-social-media-ban-is-struck-down-two-weeks-before-it-starts-ggqimt4oa#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why did France's Constitutional Council strike down the under-15 social media ban?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The Council found the ban disproportionate and unnecessary, ruling it an infringement on freedom of expression that was not suited, necessary, or proportionate to its goal. 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