French President Emmanuel Macron wants to ban access to social media for children under 16.

Macron mentioned the Australian model, which for a week has banned social media for children under 16, and said the French idea was a verification system similar to the one it had used since 2024 to prevent minors accessing pornographic websites.

Speaking in Marseille on Tuesday (local time), Macron said the measure was justified because “the big platforms are not interested in co-operating” in checking content that can incite or cause mental problems in children.

Macron said that before the age of 16, the brain was not mature and children could risk being destabilised if exposed to content on social media, underlining the risks of depression, cyberbullying, sedentarism and sleep problems.

He welcomed the fact that the EU had left it to member countries to each decide the appropriate age for accessing social media.

The law to regulate the internet in France, passed in 2024, establishes an age verification system based on a certificate of majority under the practice of “double anonymity”.

Designed to protect the privacy of users, it involves using ID cards or photos later analysed by artificial intelligence to verify age.