French lawmakers are calling for a comprehensive ban on social media for children under 15 and implementing a “digital curfew” for older teenagers, with the massively popular video platform TikTok at the center of intensified government criticism.
The proposed measures would impose a complete social media restriction for under-15s and establish a 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. digital curfew for users aged 15 to 18. According to Laure Miller, the Member of Parliament who compiled the parliamentary inquiry’s report, these restrictions would “send a signal both to children and parents” that social media “is not harmless” for young people.
Global platform under fire
TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance and boasting more than 1.5 billion users worldwide, has faced mounting pressure from Western governments across Europe and the United States. Concerns center on content that encourages suicide, self-harm, and unhealthy body image, as well as the platform’s potential use for foreign political interference.
French President Emmanuel Macron has already endorsed a social media ban for children and young adolescents, following Australia’s lead in drafting landmark legislation to ban the platform for under-16s. The move comes as TikTok remains in legal uncertainty in the United States, where President Donald Trump has allowed continued operations despite existing legislation requiring the platform’s sale.
The platform’s influence on democratic processes came under additional scrutiny when Romania’s supreme court controversially annulled the country’s presidential election last year, citing TikTok as a vector for Russian interference.
Parliamentary Investigation findings
The French parliamentary committee, launched in March, examined TikTok’s psychological effects on minors following a 2024 lawsuit by seven families. The families accused the platform of exposing their children to content that pushed them toward suicide.
After months of testimony from affected families, social media executives, and influencers, committee members presented their recommendations, which were welcomed by Laure Boutron-Marmion, the lawyer representing the plaintiff families.
“Ocean of harmful content”
Miller described investigators’ findings as revealing “an ocean of harmful content” featuring videos “promoting suicide and self-mutilation” and “showing off every kind of violence.” She explained that the platform creates self-contained “bubbles” of such content for young users through an addictive design that has been “copied by other social media” platforms.
The MP added that regular TikTok usage could significantly impact young people’s attention span and concentration abilities.
Platform response and legal action
A TikTok spokesperson rejected the lawmakers’ findings, telling AFP that the company “categorically rejects the deceptive presentation” by MPs and claimed the platform was being made a “scapegoat” for broader societal issues.
Committee chair Arthur Delaporte announced plans to file a criminal complaint with French prosecutors, accusing TikTok of “deliberately endangering the lives” of users. “The platform knows what’s going wrong and that their algorithm is problematic,” he stated.
The complaint includes allegations that TikTok executives committed perjury during their committee testimony by denying knowledge of an internal report on potential harms that was leaked to US and French media outlets.
Moderation challenges
Despite TikTok’s emphasis that young user safety represents its “top priority,” families affected by the platform’s content paint a different picture. Geraldine, a 52-year-old mother whose 18-year-old daughter died by suicide last year, discovered self-harm videos her daughter had both published and viewed on TikTok.
“TikTok didn’t kill our little girl, because she wasn’t well in any case,” Geraldine said, declining to provide her last name. However, she accused the platform of inadequate online moderation that deepened her daughter’s destructive impulses.
TikTok executives told lawmakers that the platform employs AI-enhanced moderation systems that caught 98 percent of content violating terms of service in France last year. The company recently announced that technological improvements would enable reductions in moderation jobs and locations worldwide, potentially affecting several hundred positions in the UK.
Easy circumvention
French lawmakers found that TikTok’s content rules were “very easy to circumvent,” with users employing euphemisms for filtered keywords such as “suicide.” The committee’s report suggests expanding the under-15 social media ban to include all users under 18 if platforms fail to comply with European laws within the next three years.
The recommendations represent France’s latest effort to address growing concerns about social media’s impact on young people’s mental health and development, joining a global movement toward stricter regulation of digital platforms’ interaction with minors.
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