France approves blanket social media ban for under-15s | World News

France has approved a blanket ban on under-15 children using social media, the first European country to introduce such a restriction.

Both houses of the French parliament – the Senate and National Assembly – passed a bill containing the ban on Tuesday.

The move comes eight months after Australia brought in the world’s first ban for under-16s on platforms including Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and ​YouTube amid growing concern worldwide over the harmful effects of digital content on children.

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Under the new French laws, children younger than 15 will not be allowed to open a social media account from 1 September, while platforms will have a further four months ‌to close accounts already open.

They will also need to use age verification technology approved by the French privacy regulator.

Several families in France have sued TikTok after teenage children took their own lives, deaths their bereaved relatives said were linked to harmful online content.

Gaëlle Berbonde, whose daughter spent 18 months in hospital with anorexia and depression before recovering, said they “have been campaigning for this bill from the start because, frankly, we have no other option, no other way to counter tech giants”.

“The only thing we can do is protect our children, just as we protect our children from drinking alcohol,” she said.

Social media companies generally oppose blanket bans and stress they already have measures to protect younger users, including age restrictions. But ⁠they have also promised to comply with bans that are introduced.

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The measure is one of the flagship initiatives for French President Emmanuel Macron’s ​second term before he leaves office next year.

He wants it in place for the start of the new school year in September, but a review of its constitutionality may delay that.

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In April, Mr Macron asked young people to switch off their phones and ⁠read in order to become better citizens, telling them: “We left you in this jungle and it robbed you of your attention. We need to ​slow down and help you become adults, and above all citizens.

“That’s ​why what we want to do is say that before 15 years old, no more social media.”

Half of the country’s teenagers spend between two and five hours a day on a smartphone, while 90% of 12 to 17-year-olds use smartphones daily to access the internet with more than half using their devices for social networks, France’s health watchdog said in December.