"It's protection, not punishment": Will a social media ban for under-15s soon be implemented? The High Commissioner for Children responds

How to protect children and adolescents from the dangers of social media while supporting families and protecting data. High Commissioner for Children Sarah El Haïry, former Minister of Children, Youth, and Families and Vice-President of MoDem, discusses the social media ban for children under 15 that France plans to implement within the European Union.

The President of the Republic wants to ban access to social media for those under 15. This announcement was made a week ago, following the murder of a supervisor by a 14-year-old student in Nogent. Is it known if this tragedy is linked to this use?

Investigations are ongoing. We're not able to say with absolute certainty whether there's a link. But what is certain is that the issue of social media and age is a battle we've been waging for several years. In 2023, we passed the Marcangeli law, which established the age of digital majority at 15. There was a growing awareness of the importance of supporting and regulating access to social media.

Why is this announcement coming now? The problem is not new.

There's an emergency. Social media is evolving. The virtual world is having consequences on the real world with cyberbullying. We're seeing young people's mental health deteriorate. This isn't exclusively linked to social media, but it's an accelerator. Children must not be left to algorithms without guidance. Banning social media for those under 15 is a protection. It's not a punishment.

You mentioned the Marcangeli Law of 2023. It never came into effect. Why?

Because the fight we were fighting was already to do it in Europe. But the issue of identity control while guaranteeing data security was still a topic of debate.

How is this technically possible?

France is a pioneer on the issue of identity verification. We have numerous tools: facial recognition, France Identité, biometrics... Today, we have techniques certified by the CNIL [National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties] and the ARCOM [Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority], controlled by our authorities, which protect data and identity. Clara Chappaz [Minister Delegate for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology] demonstrates to our European counterparts how reliable French tools are. Our idea isn't to impose. It's to offer a range of solutions that everyone can choose from.

How can we force platforms hosted abroad to adopt these solutions?

More than seven countries within the European Union are aware of the damage social media causes to children and want to move in this direction. As a European, we will be stronger. And if we can't do it at the European level, we will do it at the national level.

When could this ban come into effect?

Everything is contingent on ongoing European discussions within the framework of the DSA (Digital Services Act). It so happens that the next EU Council Presidency will be held by Denmark [from July 1 to December 31, 2025], a country that supports the support and protection of children. There's a kind of alignment of the planets.

What other measurements do you wear?

We must be very firm with the platforms and offer support to families. 500 digital workshops for parents have been set up across the country with the National Union of Family Associations and the family allowance fund. I'm also thinking of workshops or discussions in schools, the "digital break" (the ban on cell phones on school premises) which will be generalized at the start of the school year. We are currently upgrading Pronote [editor's note: software that the school uses to manage student absences, homework, and academic results]. We would like no more new information to appear on Pronote between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. and during the weekend.

The Minister of Health no longer wants screens for children under 3. What is your position? How can such a measure be implemented in practice?

We know that from zero to three years old, the brain needs human interaction to develop, not pixels or blue light. This new ban applies to private spaces because, for professional spaces, we already have a certain number of rules for childminders and daycare centers. The minister will make this decision in her upcoming decrees. Our job is to communicate about the consequences of screen exposure on toddlers. In the private sphere, the idea is absolutely not to send anyone to monitor what is happening at home.