Following Australia's lead, France is also going to ban social media for minors.

President Emmanuel Macron, stating that the minds of children and young people in France must be protected, has announced that steps will be taken to ban social media use for children under 15 years of age before the upcoming September. The government is currently preparing the necessary legal measures for this, and in addition to banning social media for children under 15, it has also decided to completely stop the use of mobile phones in high schools.

The French government hopes to implement these rules and regulations in a way that is clear to all parties: children, parents, and teachers.

France has made this decision amidst a trend across Western countries to enact strict laws to protect children from the harmful effects of social media. Previously, Australia also took a historic step by banning social media accounts like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook for children under 16, and the British government has also focused on imposing similar strict laws.

According to this new proposal, social media users in France will be required to verify their true age, and this process will be strictly monitored under the European Digital Services Act. While under the current system anyone can create accounts by falsely entering their date of birth, in the future, users will have to provide proper evidence that they are over 15 years old. Authorities believe that taking such practical steps is essential to protect children from harm occurring through the internet.

Due to the social media ban implemented in Australia, over 4.7 million social media accounts belonging to children under 16 have been deactivated. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated that this step was taken considering requests from parents and children themselves, who believe children should be allowed to spend time freely as children. He invited children moving away from social media to learn a new sport, play a musical instrument, or read books.

The book 'The Anxious Generation' by American psychologist Jonathan Haidt, which discusses the harm caused by social media to children's mental health, has been a strong reason for this international policy change. This legal process, which began at the state level in Australia, later developed into a national movement due to the public discourse generated by the content of that book.