France's Top Court Blocks a Ban on Social Media for Kids Under 15

France's Constitutional Council has blocked a new law that would have stopped children under 15 from using social media. The decision, issued on 14 August 2026 (Conseil constitutionnel), removed the specific part of the law that created the ban. The rest of the law stays in place.

The ban was supposed to start on 1 September 2026 (vie-publique.fr). Parliament had passed it on 22 July 2026 (La Quadrature du Net), moving quickly through the legislative process. The very next day, the case was sent to the Constitutional Council for review.

In France, the Constitutional Council is a special court that checks whether new laws comply with the country's Constitution before they take effect. This is a standard step called the Article 61 procedure. The Council reviewed the law from late July through mid-August and decided to strike down the under-15 ban. It did not object to the other parts of the law.

The bigger picture here is that countries across Europe have been trying harder to protect children from the risks of social media. France has been one of the more active countries on this front. The law had support from across the political spectrum because it was framed as a child-protection measure. But the Council's decision means there is a constitutional limit on how far lawmakers can go, and an outright ban on access for a specific age group crossed that line.

The rest of the law remains, though the available materials do not describe all of its remaining provisions in detail. What is clear is that the September 1 date will arrive without the under-15 ban in place. Parliament could try again with a revised version of the ban designed to address the Council's constitutional objections, but that would require new legislation.

For social media companies operating in France, the immediate effect is that a deadline they were preparing for is now gone. Any age-verification or access-restriction systems they were building to comply with the law now face uncertainty or may no longer be needed, depending on what lawmakers do next. The Council's ruling does not prevent future rules on minors' social media use, but any new attempt would have to pass the same constitutional test.

The Council's decision also matters beyond France. Lawmakers in other countries had been watching the French ban as a possible model for their own age-based restrictions. By striking it down, the Council has limited that example to showing political willingness to act, rather than offering a workable plan other countries could copy.

The Council's written reasoning will be important reading for legal teams and policymakers in other European countries who are considering similar rules, especially since national constitutional standards and EU-level rules like the Digital Services Act both come into play. Whether France's Parliament will come back with a new proposal before September, now that the law's main piece has been removed, is a question for the next parliamentary session.