Report from Reuters
In Brief – France’s National Assembly has approved legislation to ban children under 15 from accessing social media. Lawmakers voted 116–23 in favor of the bill, which is strongly backed by President Emmanuel Macron, and prohibits under-15s from social networks and social networking features embedded within other platforms. The proposal requires online platforms to use EU-compliant age-verification systems and extends France’s current student smartphone ban in middle schools to include high schools. The bill now moves to the Senate before returning to the lower house for a final vote. Macron has argued for months that social media contributes to a wide range of social, physical and mental illnesses and is especially harmful to young people and wants the new regime in place by the start of the next school year. Polling indicates that 73% of the French public supports restrictions and there is backing from across the political spectrum, although teenagers appear divided.
Context – Online age limits and checks are on the march and gaining steam. Australia’s 16-year-old threshold for social media accounts is the highest profile example and is now months into the implementation phase. Officials in many jurisdictions besides France are interested in some form of a social media age threshold, including the EU and UK, while similar calls are emerging in developing countries like India and Egypt which have younger populations and more authoritarian regimes. US states continue to legislate social media rules that would likely lead to age verification. While social media captures the most attention and requires systems aimed at identifying teens under 15 or 16, porn is an online age verification use case focused on adults. Porn age checks were the first step for online age checks in France, was the focus of a key US Supreme Court ruling and is a core part of the current UK regime. In Australia, age checks are now also being done by Google because search can lead to porn. It’s worth noting that face scans are far less reliable for young teens than for adults, and teens generally don’t have government IDs or credit cards.