France wants to ban kids from social media, but age-verification tests face hurdle

Following in the footsteps of pioneer nations like Australia and Indonesia, French lawmakers are finalising legislation aimed at banning children under the age of 15 from accessing social media platforms. Championed as a flagship reform by French President Emmanuel Macron to protect adolescent mental health and curb cyberbullying, the proposed ban faces an unprecedented logistical dilemma: how to reliably verify a user's age without compromising digital privacy.

The two-stage rollout plan pushed to block new underage account creations starting in September and suspend existing underage accounts by January 2027 leaves tech platforms, privacy watchdogs, and enforcement authorities facing an unresolved technical puzzle.

French privacy regulators and international experts point out significant drawbacks across all available verification tools:

Government-issued IDs

Requiring users to upload passports or driver’s licenses offers the most accurate age proof. However, experts warn it exposes user databases to severe data-breach risks, deters privacy-conscious citizens, and can easily be bypassed if teenagers submit documents belonging to older relatives or friends. Australia notably barred platforms from requiring government IDs outright under its own December under-16 ban due to these privacy concerns.

Biometric age estimation

Facial-scanning algorithms, which analyse facial features to estimate a user’s age, avoid storing sensitive identity documents. Yet, these tools suffer from higher error rates among teenagers undergoing rapid physical development and face strict pushback under European Union data protection laws.

Third-party brokers

Delegating verification to bank accounts or third-party digital identity apps—such as an upcoming age-verification system prototyped by the European Commission—removes the burden from platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram. However, integration remains technically fragmented across the European market.

According to lawmaker Laure Miller and French digital authorities, platforms will be given the flexibility to integrate approved age-checking solutions. Yet, until a foolproof, privacy-preserving standard is deployed across the European Union, France's ambitious digital boundary risks running up against the messy realities of the internet.