On August 14, 2026, France’s Constitutional Council struck down the central provision of the law that banned children under 15 from registering on social media, passed by Parliament on July 21. The Council had been petitioned in late July by opposition members of parliament, and concluded that the ban disproportionately infringes freedom of expression and communication, as it was neither adequate, necessary, nor proportionate to the objective pursued.
Among its grounds, the Council found the text too broad, reaching not only social media proper but also the social features of popular sites such as YouTube, messaging apps, and certain online games, services whose risks to the health and safety of minors, according to the decision, are not established. The exceptions provided for in the law, such as those for online encyclopedias and educational or scientific repositories, were deemed too limited.
The Council identified a second flaw as well, related to privacy. The law required platforms to adopt an age-verification system at the time of registration, but without specifying how it would work in practice. By failing to define the conditions and limits of that verification, the legislature did not provide the legal safeguards necessary to protect users’ privacy.
Because the provision was declared unconstitutional, the law cannot be enacted in its current form. President Emmanuel Macron responded the same day, tasking Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu with redrafting the text in a legally robust manner, in line with the Council’s decision and the European legal framework, with the goal of completing the reform by mid-2027. The decision, however, does not question the legitimacy of the objective of protecting children and adolescents, which opens the way for a new version of the law, narrower in scope and with adequate privacy safeguards.