San Francisco Frontiers - Teens underwhelmed by France's social media ban

France's National Assembly passed a bill in a marathon overnight session that would impose a minimum age for using social media, becoming the first country in Europe to follow Australia, which banned under-16s from TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and other sites last year.

Parents keen to curb their kids' phone use cautiously welcomed the measure, which was championed by President Emmanuel Macron and must now pass the Senate.

The legislation's targets themselves were divided -- some acknowledging the dangers social media can bring, others venting their incomprehension and plotting ways to get around a ban.

Esther, a high school student in Paris, said the idea was "super" -- on paper.

"But the problem is, when (kids) turn 15, they're going to get submerged by this wave. That's the year you start high school, and you need to be focussing on other things besides social media. They should ban it for under-14s instead," she said.

And not all social networks are equal, she insisted.

"The ones where you scroll non-stop (should be banned), because that's what ruins your brain," she said. But other apps "are key for social life".

That view is shared by 11-year-old middle-schooler Aya, also from Paris.

"Social media makes some kids crazy, they stop doing anything else. And there are disgusting things on TikTok, it's not appropriate for kids," she said.

But "at the same time, it's important in an emergency. I use WhatsApp to talk to my parents. They're not going to ban WhatsApp, are they?"

WhatsApp and other private messaging platforms are not covered by the ban.

At a high school in Marseille, one 16-year-old said she had already imposed a ban on herself.

"I deleted TikTok, it was taking up too much of my time," she said.

"I couldn't get my homework done, my head was always somewhere else... Honestly, I think it's a great idea."

An August 2025 poll found 79 percent of parents and 67 percent of young people in France favoured a social media ban for under-15s.

Polling firm Odoxa found 46 percent of young people said they had felt low self-esteem comparing themselves to others on social networks, and 18 percent said they had been harassed or insulted online.

- Brother's ID -

Parents meanwhile questioned the feasibility of the ban, while some said more attention needed to be focussed on prevention.

A ban "is a start, but it's not enough", said Emmanuelle Poudreas, whose son Clement took his own life in 2024 at age 15 after being cyberbullied on WhatsApp.

"We need the state to mobilise at every level to prepare our young people to be digital citizens," she told AFP.

"How can we ban digital tools in middle and high schools when regional governments are financing those tools and they are being provided to students to use?"

National parents' federation PEEP raised similar concerns.

"There's this impression we've solved a problem. No. We've become aware of a problem, but we haven't fixed it," the organisation's president, Emmanuel Garot, told AFP.

He called for more education on the risks of social media and stricter regulation of tech companies and "their damned algorithms".

"Let's not fool ourselves, kids are inventive. They'll find ways to get around the ban soon enough -- VPN or other social networks we barely know about."

Ylies, a third-year middle-schooler in Paris who uses Snapchat and TikTok, already has a plan.

"What am I supposed to do? Stare at the wall?" he said.

"I'll just open a new account and say I was born in 2004. If they ask me for ID, I'll use my brother's or one of his friends'."

mas-jpa-sds-mep/jhb/tw

Z.Sanchez--SFF