Macronist deputies desk a invoice to ban social networks for underneath 15s | EUROtoday

Will under-15s must do with out social media? This is what a invoice tabled Tuesday, November 18 by Macronist deputies, written by Laure Miller, recommends. The rapporteur of the parliamentary fee of inquiry into the psychological results of TikTok on minors had slammed the platform in her report submitted in September, after consulting 150 consultants, actors and witnesses. This report was accompanied by a sequence of suggestions, that are echoed on this invoice.

The flagship measure is the outright ban on social networks for these underneath 15, made doable this summer time by the European Commission – till then, States couldn’t legislate on this level which needed to be mentioned at European degree.

Why 15 years? “It’s an age that creates consensus within the scientific community”explains Laure Miller, citing the suggestions of the report submitted to Emmanuel Macron final 12 months.

It stays to outline what constitutes a social community. Will TikTok, YouTube, Snap, X, WhatsApp or Discord be housed in the identical boat? The MP agrees that the topic dangers resulting in prolonged discussions.

She believes that “all those which are characterized by continuous scrolling of videos, which is the TikTok model used by more and more platforms”, needs to be involved. Like Instagram, YouTube, Snap or Facebook. However, it excludes “instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp or Telegram, because they are widely used in young people’s extracurricular activities, or to communicate with each other. But all this is up for discussion. »

Public assembly sequence

Another level of the proposed legislation: the institution of a digital curfew for 15-18 12 months olds, from 10 p.m. to eight a.m., throughout which adolescents may not entry social networks. During the work of the TikTok fee, “Everyone told us that teenagers’ sleep was damaged and hindered”underlines Laure Miller, “the link with the mental health of young people is obvious”.

The textual content additionally proposes extending the ban on smartphones to excessive faculties, which already considerations center faculties. And to introduce into legislation the query of “digital neglect”. “The idea is obviously not to punish a single mother who puts on an hour of cartoons in the evening while she prepares dinner”specifies the MP. “The idea is to sound the alarm about practices that exist, of parents in good faith who can leave their children, sometimes very young, all day in front of screens. »

Finally, the bill aims to develop prevention messages, “so that as many French people as possible are informed of the risks that young people run when using social networks”within the type of street security campaigns, with, amongst different issues, messages on smartphone packing containers, as there are on cigarette packets.

At the identical time, the Renaissance social gathering is launching a sequence of public conferences on youngsters’s relationship with screens, “everywhere in France, because it is a subject that concerns us all, whether we are young, parents, or grandparents”pleads Laure Miller.

“A short-term measure to protect young people”

She hopes to see this textual content, which has 121 signatories, examined at first of 2026. “Today, when we have a divided political theater, it is important to highlight areas of consensus”affirms the MP, who considers that this invoice is “able to obtain the support of a maximum of deputies”.

The reality stays that the ban on social networks for these underneath 15, a want shared by Emmanuel Macron, just isn’t unanimous. The president of the TikTok fee, the socialist Arthur Delaporte, for instance, expressed his disagreement in September. For him, it quantities to “admit that we have given up on regulating the digital giants. (…) We would first place the burden of responsibility on young people rather than on the private company which is at the origin of the problem”he wrote within the foreword to the TikTok fee report.

“It is not because we impose an age restriction that we are not continuing the fight to ensure that these platforms are more responsible”retorts Laure Miller. “But it’s a long-term fight. At the same time, a short-term measure is needed to protect young people. When we participated in all the hearings of victims and families, I do not understand how we could oppose this restriction, it is a question of public health, of the protection of minors. »