France Just Approved a Social Media Ban and Your Privacy Could Be Next

French lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the bill Tuesday by a vote of 243 to 2, clearing the way for a nationwide ban on social media accounts for children under 15.^[1]

The legislation requires platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and X to implement age verification systems approved by France's privacy regulator before allowing users to sign up.

That requirement is likely to become one of the law's most contentious provisions. While supporters like President Emmanuel Macron himself say stronger age checks are needed to protect children online, verifying users' ages often requires collecting additional personal information or biometric data, raising new privacy concerns.^[2]

France has spent years trying to make age verification work. In 2025, then-digital affairs minister Clara Chappaz said the government wanted to “convince the European Commission” to support age checks across the bloc and “strengthen the scope” of the Digital Services Act.

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Proving your age could become part of using the internet

For years, most social media platforms have relied largely on users to honestly enter their birthdays. That approach is rapidly changing.

Governments around the world are increasingly pushing platforms to verify users' ages instead of taking them at their word. Depending on how those systems are implemented, verification could involve government-issued identification, facial age estimation, credit card checks, or third-party identity verification services.

Some privacy-preserving technologies are designed to confirm only whether someone is above a certain age without revealing additional personal information. But regardless of the method, someone has to perform that verification—and that means additional personal data is entering the process.

Questions naturally follow: Who receives that information? How long is it retained? Is it linked to your account? What happens if the verification provider suffers a data breach?

France isn't the only country moving in this direction

France joins a growing list of governments trying to restrict children's access to social media.

Directly cited today during Senate proceedings was Australia's under-16 social media ban took effect earlier this year. Additionally, the European Commission is developing broader online safety rules that could shape how age verification is handled across the European Union.

"We left you in this jungle and it robbed you of your attention," Macron said at a high school in April. In his view, social media lacks rules and structure and takes advantage of its users. "We need to slow down ​and help you become adults, and above all citizens."

Meanwhile, technology companies have generally resisted blanket bans, arguing they already offer parental controls, teen accounts, and other safety features. At the same time, they have said they will comply where governments require age verification.

Now, some websites and platforms are testing their age verification capabilities either in-house or using third-party platforms, as with Reddit.

Privacy concerns don't disappear

Protecting children online is a goal few people disagree with. However, the debate instead centers on what all users may have to give up in order to make those protections work.

Age verification requires infrastructure capable of determining how old someone is before granting access. Even when companies promise to minimize the information they collect or immediately delete sensitive data, expanding identity and age verification systems creates new repositories of sensitive information that must be secured.

As more countries consider social media restrictions for minors, the conversation is expanding beyond child safety alone. It's also becoming a question of how much personal information people should have to share just to access everyday online services.

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Author Details

Thomas Kent

About the Author

Thomas Kent is a multi-disciplined reporter with over a decade of experience covering online platforms, digital trends, and consumer-facing tech. Tom focuses on digital privacy, data tracking, and user behavior, with a particular interest in how cookies, online surveillance, and platform design shape the modern internet experience. His reporting takes a research-driven, news-focused approach, translating complex technical topics into clear, accessible insights.