Camilla Jessen
President Emmanuel Macron says France will not wait for the EU and will soon block social media.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will move to ban social media access for anyone under 15 if the European Union doesn’t act quickly enough.
Speaking Tuesday evening on France 2, Macron made it clear that France is ready to act alone in the coming months if necessary, Politico reports.
“We can’t wait,” Macron said, hours after a fatal knife attack at a high school in Nogent, Haute-Marne, which has reignited national debates about youth violence and online influence.
France has been working with Greece and Spain to push for tighter EU-wide rules limiting how much time teenagers spend online. But with talks moving too slowly for Paris, Macron now says the country will act independently if needed.
On social media later that evening, Macron posted on X:
“I ban social networks for children under 15. Platforms have the possibility to verify age. Let’s do this.”
Age verification already rolling out in France
France has already started imposing age verification requirements on certain online platforms, including X, Reddit, Bluesky, and Mastodon, by classifying them in the same category as pornographic sites.
New age checks for pornographic websites took effect in June 2025, leading major sites like Pornhub to shut down access in France entirely.
This, in turn, triggered a sharp rise in VPN usage as users sought ways to bypass the restrictions.
Alongside the social media crackdown, Macron announced that age verification will soon apply to online knife sales as well. The move follows the recent killing of the high school teaching assistant.
“A 15-year-old will no longer be able to buy a knife online,” Macron said. “We will impose drastic financial sanctions and bans.”
French Prime Minister François Bayrou also stated the government’s goal is to ban the sale of any kind of knife to minors.