A landmark decision from France’s Constitutional Council, the nation’s highest constitutional authority, has overturned a groundbreaking legislative ban on social media use for individuals under the age of 15, ruling that the policy violated fundamental constitutional protections for freedom of expression.
The controversial bill, which positioned France as the first European nation to enact such a sweeping restriction on minor’s social media access, was approved by national lawmakers in July 2025. Drafted in response to growing public and expert concern over the well-documented negative impacts of unregulated social media use on adolescent mental health, the ban was scheduled to roll out in phases starting this September under a commitment from President Emmanuel Macron’s administration.
The court’s Friday ruling nullifies the policy entirely. Shortly after the decision was announced, President Macron directed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to develop a revised draft law that addresses all the constitutional concerns raised by the council. The review of the original legislation was triggered by Lecornu himself, who referred contested portions of the bill to the nine-member Constitutional Council after its parliamentary approval to confirm its alignment with France’s constitution.
In its official ruling, the council stated that the core first article of the original legislation created an infringement on under-15s’ rights to freedom of expression and communication that was “neither appropriate, necessary, nor proportionate” to the stated goal of protecting youth mental health. The court also highlighted critical flaws in the law’s mandatory age-verification requirement for accessing online platforms, noting that the policy failed to put in place the “necessary legal safeguards” to protect user rights, raising unaddressed privacy concerns.
Following the ruling, a spokesperson from the Élysée Palace confirmed that the French government will move forward with expedited work on a new bill, emphasizing that President Macron remains fully committed to implementing this reform by the beginning of 2027. The original policy would have barred all users under 15 from creating new social media accounts starting this September, with mandatory age verification for all new accounts, and extended the rule to all existing accounts by January 2026.
Critics of the original ban had raised a host of concerns long before the court ruling, questioning everything from the technical feasibility of the policy to the privacy risks of widespread age verification. Opponents also argued that young, tech-savvy users would easily bypass verification checks, and that the legislation had been rushed through the legislative process without sufficient scrutiny.
France’s policy is part of a growing global trend of restricting minor access to social media: Australia became the first nation to implement a national ban in December 2024, barring users under 16 from platforms, though enforcement gaps have left widespread underage use unchanged. Across Europe, momentum for restrictive policies has accelerated in recent months. In May 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed a “social media delay” for children across the European Union, indicating that new bloc-wide legislation could be introduced within months. In the United Kingdom, Labour Party leader and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced a national ban on social media for under-16s set to take effect in January 2027, alongside an optional midnight curfew for 16 and 17-year-old users.