Constitutional Council of France lifts ban on social media for children under 15

Constitutional Council of France lifts ban on social media for children under 15 The authority declared the ban unconstitutional as it violates children's right to freedom of expression and communicationPARIS, August 14. /TASS/. The ban on the use of social networks by children under the age of 15, supposed to come into force in September after the adoption of the law by parliament, was declared unconstitutional, the Constitutional Council ruled. In justifying its decision in 23 paragraphs, the Council explains that the ban violates children's right to freedom of expression and communication. The Council agreed that the ban may be constitutional when it comes to protecting the interests of the child and preventing violations of public order. However, in its current form, it covers absolutely all online resources, with the exception of online encyclopedias and educational platforms that allow information exchange without taking into account the specifics of resources, without a risk assessment for minors, and without allowing parents or guardians to allow children to use these resources with their own responsibility. The Constitutional Council also said that the ban implies that even adults must confirm their age. "Without defining the conditions and limits within which such confirmation should be provided, the legislator did not provide for legal guarantees capable of ensuring compliance with the requirements of the constitution. It follows from all of the above that without the need to consider the remaining complaints, article 1 of the submitted law contradicts the constitution," the decision reads. Banning social media for children Earlier, the National Assembly (lower house of parliament) and the Senate (upper house of parliament) of France supported the bill "on the protection of minors from the threats of social networks," which bans the use of social networks for children under 15 years of age. This measure obliged social networks to implement mechanisms for verifying the age of their users to prevent their use by children. It also ordered social networks to delete the accounts of the users under 15. The bill also introduced a "digital curfew" for the users between the ages of 15 and 18, limiting their time using Internet resources. According to French President Emmanuel Macron, who advocated the ban, the law was supposed to come into force in September. At the first stage, it was only meant to prohibit the creation of new accounts for people under the age of 15. The deletion of existing accounts was supposed to take place before January 1, 2027. 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