Paris plans social media ban for children, age controls on Bluesky & Co.
After a transnational call for a social media ban for children in the EU met with a muted response, Paris has announced its own steps.
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French President Emmanuel Macron wants to ban children and young people under the age of 15 from accessing social networks if the European Union does not adopt further measures in this regard. This is set to happen in the coming months, according to the political magazine Politico. "We can't wait", declared France's head of state just hours after a 14-year-old pupil in the town of Nogent stabbed an employee at his school during a bag check. Paris is also planning to classify social networks such as X, Bluesky, Reddit and Mastodon as pornography platforms and thus impose strict age verification requirements on them.
France going it alone?
France may want to exert pressure to push forward a proposal from Greece and Spain across the EU, which aims to drastically reduce the use of social media by children and young people, the political magazine explains further. The aim is to prevent the youngest from accessing social networks such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat without their parents' consent. The Danish EU Council Presidency wants to continue to support the plan, even if the initial reaction to the proposal has been rather muted. However, Macron apparently does not want to wait and wants to ensure that his country leads the way now.
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According to Euronews, there have so far been no explanations following the deadly attack in Nogent to suggest that it was linked to content on social networks. A police officer who broke up the attack was also injured in the attack. Shortly afterward, Macron assured on the short message service X that the government was mobilized "to reduce crime". In the evening, he also announced there that he wanted to ban children under the age of 15 from social media. The platforms could check the age: "Let's do it!"
A few hours later, Politico then reported that France's Digital Minister Clara Chappaz had informed the news site that the classification of certain online services as pornography platforms was being examined. Bluesky, Mastodon and Reddit were mentioned by name as social networks that also distribute pornographic content. The classification based on a law that has just come into force could oblige them to implement strict age controls. However, it is questionable whether this would even be legally possible. Under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU Commission is responsible for regulating very large internet services (VLOPs).
(mho)
