France’s Senate and National Assembly both approved the compromise bill on 21 July, completing Parliament’s work on a national social-media age floor. The Senate’s legislative dossier marks the proposal definitively adopted after both chambers accepted the joint committee text. [E1]
Article 1 states that access to an online social-networking service provided by a platform is prohibited for children under 15. Online encyclopedias, educational or scientific directories, and platforms used to develop or share free software and open educational projects are exempt. The exclusions turn a broad political slogan into a narrower statutory boundary. [E2]
New accounts fall under the rule on 1 September 2026. Accounts created before that date receive four additional months. The same package extends the school-phone restrictions already used in primary and middle schools to high schools, with each institution’s rules determining practical exceptions. [E2]
The final wording is more precise about the child than the gatekeeper. It prohibits access but does not place a new sanctions ladder in Article 1, and Parliament removed an earlier ARCOM mechanism after European Commission objections tied to the Digital Services Act. A Senate rapporteur called the compromise deliberately minimalist and acknowledged its limited normative reach. [E3]
Supporters expect age assurance to supply the missing hinge through the wider European platform regime. Critics from the left argued that reliable checks could erode anonymity, collide with constitutional protections and prove difficult to enforce. The measure passed comfortably, but the operational argument survived the vote. [E4][E3]
A constitutional review may still affect the timetable. Platforms also need a technical method that distinguishes a 14-year-old from an adult without turning every adult login into a permanent identity checkpoint. Neither problem disappears because Parliament settled on a birthday. [E4]
France has supplied the date, the threshold and the white list. Regulators and platforms now have six weeks to supply the door. [E2][E3]