By Atoyebi Nike
A French parliamentary commission has recommended banning social media use for children under 15 and imposing a nighttime curfew for users aged 15 to 18.
The panel, launched in March after lawsuits against TikTok, said the move would protect minors from harmful online content. Lawmaker Laure Miller, who presented the report on Thursday, said the measure would send “a clear signal” to parents and children that social media is not harmless.
The recommendations follow testimonies from families whose children died by suicide after exposure to self-harm content on TikTok. One mother, Geraldine, told AFP she only discovered such videos after her 18-year-old daughter’s death.
TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, insists youth safety is its “top priority,” claiming it removes over 95% of harmful content within 24 hours.
The commission also proposed a digital curfew for teenagers, restricting access between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., and threatened a total ban for under-18s if platforms fail to meet EU Digital Services Act obligations within three years.
It further called for a national awareness campaign and a new “digital negligence” law targeting parents who fail to protect children online.
France joins other EU states, including Spain and Greece, pushing Brussels for tougher regulation of minors’ social media use amid growing concerns about cyberbullying and harmful content.
