France Plans 2026 Ban on Social Media for Under-15s, Advancing EU-Wide Digital ID Approach

French lawmakers are preparing a renewed push to limit children’s online exposure, unveiling a proposal that would block anyone under 15 from using social media platforms.

The draft legislation, reviewed by AFP, sets September 2026 as the target date for enforcement.

President Emmanuel Macron has endorsed the plan and urged Parliament to take it up.

France’s effort follows a similar move in Australia, which recently became the first country to impose an outright ban on under-16s accessing social media.

To apply such a rule, online platforms would need to verify every user’s age at sign-up or login. This would go far beyond the current model of self-declared birthdays and instead rely on official credentials such as national IDs, driver’s licenses, or government-backed digital identity wallets.

In effect, it would introduce a form of digital ID into everyday internet use.

The United Kingdom has moved in the same direction under its Online Safety Act. The law obliges many digital platforms to check users’ ages before allowing them to see certain types of content, with age-assurance providers emerging as a new industry.

These systems often function as digital IDs, determining what users can access online based on proof of identity or verified age.

The European Union is developing a coordinated version of this model. The Digital Services Act encourages platforms to adopt “effective age assurance” for minors, while the European Commission is advancing plans for an EU Digital Identity Wallet.

This wallet, expected to roll out across member states in 2027, could allow citizens to confirm their age for online access and other services. Though marketed as privacy-preserving, it still centralizes personal identity data across both public and private sectors.

In the United States, a growing number of states are taking their own approach. Several have passed or proposed laws that compel social media companies to verify users’ ages and secure parental consent before minors can open accounts.

While there is no nationwide policy, these state laws effectively build local versions of digital identity systems tied to online access.

Other countries are following suit. New Zealand has proposed similar legislation to bar under-16s from joining social networks unless platforms can verify their age, modeled closely on the Australian example.

From a privacy standpoint, these moves share a common consequence: they link identity verification to ordinary online behavior.

Digital IDs, even when designed with safety in mind, create centralized points of control and data collection.

Once personal credentials are required for social media, streaming, or gaming platforms, the result is a system that could track, categorize, and store information about individuals’ online activity.