France will have to review its plan to keep young people away from social media. The French Constitutional Council has rejected the general ban on access to social media for children under 15 years oldone of the measures on which Emmanuel Macron had focused most in recent months to counter the risks linked to the early use of digital platforms. In the decision of August 14, 2026, the constitutional judges censured the central provision of the law finally approved by the French Parliament on July 21, considering it incompatible with freedom of expression and communication. According to the Council, the ban imposed on under 15s constitutes a limitation that is insufficiently justified and disproportionate to the objective pursued.
A decision that does not at all deny the problem underlying the law. In fact, the Council explicitly recognizes the need to protect the best interests of the minor and, therefore, the possibility for the State to intervene to protect children and adolescents from digital risks. What does not pass the constitutional test is the instrument chosen: to ban access to a very broad category of online services based on age alone.
Because the ban was rejected
The point is not to question the need to protect children and adolescents. The “Council of Wise Men” itself recognized this “the constitutional requirement of protecting the best interests of the minor”. What was not convincing was the instrument chosen.
The ban, in fact, would have concerned a very broad range of online services, including those for which, according to the judges, no specific risks to the health or safety of minors have been ascertained. A uniform measure, therefore, applied to very different platforms and without a sufficiently precise distinction based on the level of risk. Then there is the issue of age verification. To really prevent a 14 year old boy from accessing social media, it is not enough to ask him his date of birth. More effective systems are needed, which may involve checking documents or other personal data.
And this means that, to verify who is under 15, we would inevitably end up also asking adults to prove their age. A mechanism that opens up further questions on the privacy and data protection front.
Macron doesn’t give up: the law will be rewritten
The failure, however, does not end the game. After the decision of the Constitutional Council, Emmanuel Macron instructed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to rewrite the law, with the aim of achieving to a new solution by spring 2027.
The government will therefore have to build a more targeted regulation, capable of more precisely identifying the platforms and functions considered dangerous, as well as establishing age verification systems compatible with user rights.
The French decision thus highlights the real crux of the debate: protecting minors from social media does not necessarily mean banning them from social media. Cyberbullying, extreme content, continuous notifications, algorithms designed to retain users and potentially compulsive dynamics remain real problems. But truly intervening could mean acting on the functioning of the platforms, and not just setting a demographic threshold.
And this is precisely the challenge that now awaits France: finding a balance between protection of the youngest and fundamental freedoms, without transforming a necessary protection into an indiscriminate ban.
