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France – The French Constitutional Council strikes down the social media ban for under-15s: lessons from a minimalist law

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25 September 2026

Author: Marie-Charlotte Schremser, Sonia Cissé

In July 2026, the French National Assembly adopted a very short Bill prohibiting access to “online social networking service” (subject to exceptions) for children under the age of 15. The Bill had been stripped down to avoid being pre-empted by the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) and while a number of other Member States are considering similar bans, France was the first to actually attempt to introduce a general age-based ban.

The Bill was referred to the French Constitutional Council which in its decision No 2026-911 DC in August 2026 declared the under-15 ban contrary to the French Constitution. The remaining provisions of the Bill, including on mobile phone use in schools, were not examined by the French Constitutional Council and are unaffected by the decision.

This reform was part of France’s wider push to strengthen the protection of minors online, alongside the DSA and the French Law No 2024-449 on securing and regulating the digital space (SREN). As France sets about revisiting the ban, we consider the shortcomings of the original Bill, the proposed EU KIDS Act and the questions and challenges ahead.

A minimalist text, a maximalist impact

01
A minimalist text, a maximalist impact
02
Who was caught by the Bill?
03
The challenges of age verification
04
The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill
05
Other challenges ahead
06
Looking ahead

The Bill was striking in its brevity. The proposed text contained only three separate articles which ran to less than a thousand words.

This lack of clarity and substance in the provision establishing the social media ban was intentional and intended as a “legal trick” to avoid any conflict with the DSA – which is a maximum harmonisation instrument. Indeed, during the legislative process the European Commission raised concerns that certain provisions of the Bill risked overlapping with areas already governed by the DSA, emphasising the need to preserve the Regulation's harmonising effect and avoid parallel national supervision and enforcement frameworks. As a result, provisions that would have strengthened the role of the French Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom) were ultimately removed, thereby eliminating the only normative provision on age verification contained in the Bill.

In practical terms, this meant the Bill was just as notable for what it did not say. It created a general prohibition on access to social networking services for children under 15 but offered very little detail on implementation and enforcement. The final text introduced no dedicated sanctions regime, imposed no explicit compliance obligations on platforms, and prescribed no particular age-assurance mechanism.

Who was caught by the Bill?

01
A minimalist text, a maximalist impact
02
Who was caught by the Bill?
03
The challenges of age verification
04
The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill
05
Other challenges ahead
06
Looking ahead

Underlying the one-size-fits-all problem was a more fundamental ambiguity: the Bill provided almost no clarity on which services fell within its scope. It simply referred to online social networking services, as defined in the DMA – i.e. “a platform that enables end users to connect and communicate with each other, share content and discover other users and content across multiple devices and, in particular, via chats, posts, videos and recommendations”.

Encyclopaedic, educational, scientific and open-source collaborative platforms were expressly excluded from its scope, but doubt about the scope of the law remains. For example, would the Bill have applied to a service such as Telegram? It allows users to connect to each other and message in public channels, potentially reaching massive online communities, but would not generally be considered to constitute social networking.

For this reason, other jurisdictions, such as the UK and Australia have typically specifically designated the platforms that are subject to age restrictions. This provides certainty but risks pushing children towards other – potentially less regulated – platforms.

The approach of specifically designating operators was considered at an earlier stage of the Bill but was abandoned because of the potential conflict with the DSA. The practical outcome was real uncertainty about the scope of the Bill.

The challenges of age verification

01
A minimalist text, a maximalist impact
02
Who was caught by the Bill?
03
The challenges of age verification
04
The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill
05
Other challenges ahead
06
Looking ahead

The scope uncertainty described above was compounded by a further practical concern that would have confronted any implementation of the ban: how online platforms should approach the issue of age verification/estimation. This is a uniquely difficult issue in any online environment. Any solution will need to navigate and balance the following concerns:

Accuracy and robustness: Is it possible to bypass the solution? For this reason, self-declaration solutions or prohibitions in terms and conditions are generally seen as ineffective. Equally, how accurate is the solution? The Commission’s guidelines, discussed below, suggest an accuracy level of ±2 years is not sufficient.
Privacy and anonymity: The solution should also comply with the GDPR which, for example, means avoiding collecting excessive data. Similarly, the impact on the ability of users to operate anonymous accounts is important.
User friction: This also raises questions about the additional friction raised through age verification. For registered users this should be a one-off undertaking, but for unregistered users, having to undergo age verification before being given access to content seems unworkable.
Exclusion and discrimination: Finally, the solution should not be discriminatory – for example a facial estimation tool should not discriminate against particular ethnic groups – or exclusionary.

These issues are recognised in the European Commission Guidelines on measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security of minors online which distinguishes between: (a) Age verification: based on official documents or other reliable sources of identification to establish a user’s age with a high degree of certainty; and (b) Age estimation: which assesses whether a user is likely to be a certain age, within a given age range, or above or below a specified age.

Those seeking a more robust and legally defensible approach could look to the European Commission’s Age Verification Solution, which offers a useful compliance benchmark. The specification should allow users to prove they meet a given age threshold without disclosing additional personal information. Built on the same technical specifications as the European Digital Identity Wallet, it is designed to be interoperable with the wider EU digital identity ecosystem. However, this is not currently operational.

The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill

01
A minimalist text, a maximalist impact
02
Who was caught by the Bill?
03
The challenges of age verification
04
The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill
05
Other challenges ahead
06
Looking ahead

These factors all weighed heavily in the decision by the French Constitutional Council to strike down the Bill.

Drawing on Article 11 of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which protects the freedoms of expression and communication, the Council observed that "in view of the widespread development of online public communication services, as well as the importance these services have come to assume for participation in democratic life and the expression of ideas and opinions, [Article 11] entails the freedom to access these services and to express oneself through them" (para 6, translation).

It therefore considered that the freedoms protected by Article 11 imply a corresponding freedom to access such services for the purpose of exercising those rights of expression and communication. On that basis, the Council held that the provision imposing the ban constituted an interference with those protections.

The Council also faulted the Bill for allowing no specific assessment of the risk a given service posed to a child – whether by reference to the minor's age, level of maturity, family circumstances, or the nature of the service itself. The message for legislators is clear: any attempt to revive the law will need to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach.

The very broad scope of the Bill further compounded the concerns identified by the Council. It found that the Bill imposed a blanket prohibition regardless of the nature of the services concerned, the functionalities or content they offer, the risks they present, or their safeguards. The practical consequence was that the prohibition could capture online communication services without any demonstrated risk to minors’ health or safety, regardless of their content or operational characteristics.

The Council’s decision underscores that any future text seeking to prevent access by users under 15 will still need some mechanism to assess age, defining the conditions and limits under which such verification takes place. Indeed, recalling that the freedom guaranteed by Article 2 of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen encompasses the right to privacy, the Council observed that a ban on minors under 15 necessarily entails age verification for all users, including adults, seeking access to the relevant services. As the Bill remained silent on the conditions or safeguards governing that verification process, the Council held that it failed to provide the legal safeguards necessary to ensure compliance with these constitutional requirements.

Other challenges ahead

01
A minimalist text, a maximalist impact
02
Who was caught by the Bill?
03
The challenges of age verification
04
The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill
05
Other challenges ahead
06
Looking ahead

The French Constitutional Council’s decision resolved the constitutional challenges, it did not however resolve a number of further legislative and practical challenges the Bill raised, and any redraft will have to face them. For example:

The DSA as a maximum harmonisation instrument: The DSA is a full harmonisation instrument and Member States cannot adopt or maintain additional national requirements relating to the matters falling within the scope of the Regulation, unless explicitly provided for in the DSA (recital 9). The Bill tried to get round this pre-emption mechanism through its brevity and lack of enforcement provisions. A more detailed, constitutional redraft will need to manage the same tension with the DSA’s harmonising effect.
The KIDS Act is also maximum harmonisation: A further challenge is the European Commission has recently adopted proposal for the EU KIDS Act. This prohibits children under the age of 13 from having a social media account with further restrictive controls for children aged 13 and over. This is not only a maximum harmonising instrument but one specifically addressed at setting minimum ages - it “sets out rules for a harmonised minimum age for creating an account with online social networking services” (Recital 5).
The country-of-origin principle: The Bill did not address its jurisdictional scope but presumably was intended to apply to “online social networking services” provided from other EU Member States. This potentially would have run into the country-of-origin principles in the eCommerce Directive. The CJEU considered this recently in WebGroup Czech Republic and Coyote System (C-188/24 and C-190/24), discussed here. The provisions of the Bill would likely fall within the “co-ordinated field” so could only be applied to a provider in another state if it protects a specific public interest, the action is taken against a specific entity and that action is proportionate.

Looking ahead

01
A minimalist text, a maximalist impact
02
Who was caught by the Bill?
03
The challenges of age verification
04
The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill
05
Other challenges ahead
06
Looking ahead

The Council’s ruling is unlikely to mark the end of France’s efforts in this area. The French President has already instructed the Prime Minister to prepare a revised and “legally robust” version of the ban, taking the Council’s decision and the European framework into account, with implementation targeted for spring 2027.

France has shown its willingness to legislate proactively on digital matters without being confined by the wider EU framework. This means that the EU frameworks should remain the foundation of any compliance programme, but notwithstanding the tightrope any revised bill must walk to avoid being pre-empted by the DSA, it still introduces additional obligations, operational requirements and regulatory risk.

Whether a redrafted bill will be effective remains to be seen. Research suggests that despite the ban in Australia, there is little evidence of immediate substantive reductions in reported social media use with many participants aged under 16 years reportedly still using social media platforms (here). A revised French ban may therefore face similar practical challenges.

In any event, the interaction between the French regime, the DSA, the KIDS Act and emerging EU age-verification tools continues to evolve, and online platforms should monitor developments at both levels closely. The most effective compliance strategies will be those capable of accommodating both harmonised European standards and evolving national requirements.

The French Constitutional Council’s decision No 2026-911 DC is available here.

France – The French Constitutional Council strikes down the social media ban for under-15s: lessons from a minimalist law

A minimalist text, a maximalist impact

A minimalist text, a maximalist impact

Who was caught by the Bill?

The challenges of age verification

The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill

Other challenges ahead

Looking ahead

​

​

Who was caught by the Bill?

A minimalist text, a maximalist impact

Who was caught by the Bill?

The challenges of age verification

The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill

Other challenges ahead

Looking ahead

​

​

The challenges of age verification

​

A minimalist text, a maximalist impact

Who was caught by the Bill?

The challenges of age verification

The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill

Other challenges ahead

Looking ahead

​

​

The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill

​

A minimalist text, a maximalist impact

Who was caught by the Bill?

The challenges of age verification

The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill

Other challenges ahead

Looking ahead

​

​

Other challenges ahead

​

A minimalist text, a maximalist impact

Who was caught by the Bill?

The challenges of age verification

The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill

Other challenges ahead

Looking ahead

​

​

Looking ahead

​

A minimalist text, a maximalist impact

Who was caught by the Bill?

The challenges of age verification

The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill

Other challenges ahead

Looking ahead

​

​

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France – The French Constitutional Council strikes down the social media ban for under-15s: lessons from a minimalist law

​

​

A minimalist text, a maximalist impact

Who was caught by the Bill?

The challenges of age verification

The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill

Other challenges ahead

Looking ahead

A minimalist text, a maximalist impact

Who was caught by the Bill?

The challenges of age verification

The French Constitutional Council strikes down the Bill

Other challenges ahead

Looking ahead

The challenges of age verification

A minimalist text, a maximalist impact

Who was caught by the Bill?

The challenges of age verification