Emmanuel Macron is holding the EU’s proverbial feet to the fire.
The French president’s push to ban social media for children under 15 in France is as much a tactic to jolt the EU into holding Big Tech accountable as it is a genuine domestic legislative effort, analysts say.
Macron's recent announcement was sparked by the fatal stabbing of a teacher by a school boy in suburban Paris on 10 June — though at this point, it remains unclear whether social media played a role in the deadly incident.
"I am giving us a few months to get European cooperation. Otherwise…we will start doing it in France. We cannot wait,” he said of the proposed ban earlier this month.
Stricter national rules in France would likely run up against the EU’s flagship law for regulating tech platforms, the Digital Services Act (DSA). The legislation, which came into effect in February 2024, is meant to make online platforms more transparent, curb illegal content and protect minors across the EU.
But Brussels has yet to bring the full force of the law to bear on large tech firms — most of which are American — in the wake of Donald Trump’s return to the White House. The Trump administration has repeatedly criticised EU regulations, emboldening US tech giants to take a more combative stance with the European Commission.
While the Commission has been more willing to go after Big Tech with the Digital Markets Act — designed to ensure fair competition in the European market — it’s been more reticent to fully utilise the DSA.
The Commission has launched formal proceedings under the DSA against major platforms like TikTok, Meta and X — citing concerns ranging from advertising transparency to election integrity — but enforcement has been piecemeal and, in the view of France some other member states, too slow to address urgent risks to minors.
“Some of the frustration with the implementation of the DSA has been that we are in a politically fairly sensitive time period where social media platforms have moved to being more reluctant” to comply with regulations, said Trisha Meyer, director of the research Centre for Digitalisation, Democracy and Innovation (CD2I).
“The return of President Trump with his buddy Elon Musk all created kind of a climate of free speech [and the perception] that the DSA is a censorship tool,” she added.
In that context, Macron’s push for a social media ban can be seen as an attempt to goad Brussels into more forcefully implementing the DSA, Meyer said. France, she added, “has a track record when it comes to digital policy” — noting its past efforts to pressure the Commission to expand EU regulation around copyright infringement and hate speech.
Valère Ndior, a professor of public law at the University of Western Brittany, said: “France is alerting the Commission, saying: ‘If you are not diligent enough, if you do not activate the tools that we have implemented, we are willing to resort to our own legal means to actually protect our interests.”
For its part, the Commission has said it’s up to member states to implement any sort of ban on social media — even though such a move could fall afoul of the DSA.
Macron’s proposal echoes earlier policy ambitions. In July 2023, France implemented a "digital majority" law, establishing a minimum age of 15 for social media use, requiring parental consent for users under 15 and mandating age verification.
But the law was never enforced. Deemed incompatible with the DSA, it was effectively dead on arrival. “It's not at all in the spirit of the DSA to ban social media for kids,” said Michelle Ledger, a researcher with the Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) and Cullen International, which consults for clients such as Apple and social media gaming company Roblox.
EU states back Macron’s ban
Other member states are now following Macron’s lead. Last week, the Netherlands backed a ban on under-15s using platforms like TikTok and Instagram, with Ireland reportedly considering a similar move. Spain and Greece are urging the Commission to introduce EU-wide age verification and minimum age rules for social platforms, while Denmark — set to take over the rotating Council presidency in July — is eyeing its own social media ban for minors.
Still, national governments could face legal limits if they go too far beyond the stipulations of the DSA. Since it’s a regulation, not a directive, any domestic legislation that exceeds its scope could be deemed incompatible with EU law, Ledger explained.
A social media ban could also violate the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), given age verification would require extensive mining of a user’s data, said Urs Buscke, a senior legal officer at the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC). “We have questions in terms of how this is compliant with data protection rules…it's not aligned with the principle of data minimisation,” he argued.
And even if bans were to pass legal muster, enforcement would require widespread digital ID systems — something many EU countries still lack. EU data from 2024 show countries including Italy, Poland and Austria had under 50% uptake of electronic identification (eID), making age checks difficult at scale.
More broadly, advocates warn that banning social media could do more harm than good.
“Social networks are a great way for children to socialise, to inform themselves, to find ideas,” said Angèle Lefranc, an advocacy officer at the Fondation pour l'Enfance. “We hear what Macron says … but is it realistic?”
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