France bans social media for <15 year olds

[digdeeper]

https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/21/world/fr ... r-children

The justification:

“The brains of our children and our teenagers are not for sale,” he had said in a video message in January. “The emotions of our children and our teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated, neither by American platforms nor by Chinese algorithms.”

They are already manipulated by the school you so worship, even worse than any social media algo can muster. It's 7 hours of sitting, writing down stuff you will never use, getting screamed at by teachers, having to fight off bullies, wear what you hate, and follow 150 other arbitrary rules.

According to Arcom, children aged 12 to 17 in France spend an average of 1 hour and 21 minutes a day on TikTok. The regulator says the platform’s recommendation algorithm tends to promote the most “extreme” content, exposing teenagers to a continuous stream of anxiety-inducing or otherwise harmful videos.

Sounds little compared to the 7h at school. The "continuous stream of anxiety" actually comes from school, worrying that you haven't prepared for tests well enough, or you will be bullied again, etc.

The truth is this has nothing to do with "protecting kids" and will in fact hurt everyone that is disabled in a way that inhibits leaving the house or gets him mocked by his peers. It will hurt any autist or similar person who is disliked because of it. It will hurt anyone whose parents don't let him leave the house. It will hurt anyone with specific interests that are hard to fulfill outside. It will hurt information access for anyone who has specific problems and a lack of "trusted adults" IRL who can help. It will even hurt completely regular people by inhibiting communication with their friends, setting up events, etc. And they have to know all this because psychologists have already raised the alarm when Denmark or Australia attempted this. Therefore, the hurt is the point. The fact that basically every "nation" is jumping onto this train also signifies a conspiracy, probably to prevent young people from defining themselves so that they can be chained easier later.

[TechLord]

Why am I not surprised?

Well, at least one year less than Australia (16).

Notice the pattern: one [s]country[/s] government does something that takes freedom away, many others follow.

This "protection" stuff prevents people from being confronted with reality. It just delays the inevitable. It probably exists to "domesticate" citizens. To prevent them from developing independent thinking.

Also, the goal of this is obviously age verification surveillance.

Quote that can be applied to other areas of life:

If we were put there for our protection, why were the guns at the guard towers pointed inward, instead of outward?

(source)

From what I remember, France was also the first EU country that banned students from using mobile phones in schools back in 2018.

Every now and then, I hear politicians or mainstream media people saying phrases along the lines of "the law hasn't caught up yet with the modern pace of technology". Well, good! So be it! It shouldn't catch up. Bureaucrats should stay behind their castle walls and leave us alone.