French lawmakers were expected to approve a bill banning social media access for children under 15 on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, following a parliamentary reconciliation committee agreement reached the previous day. The legislation, which Le Monde reported would be the first such ban in the European Union, cleared both the upper and lower houses of the French parliament after months of legislative iteration. The committee's July 20 accord resolved differences between the two chambers, finalizing a text first deposited at the National Assembly on November 18, 2025, as a bill to protect minors from social media risks.

The National Assembly initially approved the under-15 ban on January 26, 2026. The adopted text, numbered T.A. n° 217 under the 17th legislature, explicitly states that access to online social networking services provided by online platforms is prohibited for minors under fifteen years old. Beyond blocking new registrations, the bill requires social media platforms to suspend existing accounts belonging to users under 15. The foundation report on the bill, numbered n° 2341, also includes additional measures concerning prevention.

The Senate took up its version on March 25, 2026, depositing both a commission text (n° 469) and a rapport (n° 468) under the 2025-2026 session. The Senate rapport noted that some social network services would remain accessible to minors aged 15, subject to certain conditions. The Conseil d'État issued an opinion on the bill dated January 12, 2026, confirming the objective of protecting minors through the access ban. The Conseil d'État also proposed a blacklist mechanism for social networks banned for minors under 15. On July 8, 2026, the French Senate announced that the European Commission had given its approval, or "feu vert," for this blacklist mechanism. The Senate planned to publish the list of banned networks by ministerial order (arrêté) on the advice of a designated authority.

The bill also mandates that promotion of social networks and online platforms carry a warning mentioning "produits dangereux pour les" (dangerous products for...). The 2026 ban marks France's second attempt to pass legislation barring children under 15 from using social media. Separately, France plans to prohibit mobile phones in high schools from September 2026, part of a broader regulatory push on youth technology access.

The broader context here involves a European regulatory environment where member states are increasingly testing the boundaries of platform liability and age-gating mechanisms. The European Commission's approval of the blacklist mechanism signals that the French approach has cleared internal market scrutiny, at least at the notification stage. For platform operators, the enforcement architecture matters as much as the age threshold itself. The requirement to suspend existing accounts, rather than merely preventing new ones, imposes an affirmative duty to identify and remove users already on the service. That obligation raises practical questions about age verification methods, data retention under GDPR, and the technical feasibility of compliance for platforms with large existing user bases in France. The blacklist mechanism adds a second layer of risk for platforms: inclusion on a ministerial list carries reputational and access consequences that extend beyond individual user enforcement. France's positioning as first-mover within the EU means other member states will watch both the legal challenges and implementation friction closely. The inclusion of advertising warnings framing social media as "produits dangereux pour les" minors introduces a public-health framing that could shape future regulatory language across the bloc.