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France’s Constitutional Council ruled on 14 August 2026 that Article 1 of a law barring children under 15 from social-network services was unconstitutional. The decision struck down that blanket prohibition—not the law’s separate school provisions and not every possible age-based restriction. The Council accepted child protection as a legitimate aim, but found the ban too broad and its required age-proof system insufficiently protective of privacy.
What did France’s top court decide?
The Conseil constitutionnel (Constitutional Council), France’s constitutional-review body, issued Decision No. 2026-911 DC on 14 August 2026. It considered referrals from deputies and held that Article 1 of the law aimed at protecting minors from risks linked to social-network use was contrary to the Constitution. The provision would have barred under-15s from services covered by the law’s definition of social networks.
The ruling meant that the under-15 prohibition did not take effect in the law as promulgated. It was a decision about this provision’s design and safeguards, not a declaration that child-protection rules or age limits are categorically unconstitutional. Read Decision No. 2026-911 DC.
Why was the under-15 ban unconstitutional?
The restriction swept too broadly
The Council began from Article 11 of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It said freedom of communication includes access to public online communication services and the ability to express oneself through them. Legislators may restrict that freedom to protect children, public order and the rights of others, but the restriction must be necessary, adapted and proportionate to its objective.
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The law’s protective aims were legitimate. The Council acknowledged risks associated with social-network features, including addiction, isolation, exposure to pornography, harassment and fraud. Its objection was that the law restricted access without regard to a service’s functions, content, specific dangers or existing protections. It could therefore cover services for which risks to minors had not been established.
It did not account for individual circumstances
The prohibition applied to every child under 15, without an assessment linked to the child’s maturity or family circumstances, or to the risks of a particular service. It also gave parents and legal representatives no statutory way to authorize access to selected services when they considered that access to be in the child’s interest. Taken together, those features made the interference with communication freedom insufficiently tailored, the Council concluded.
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Age proof created a separate privacy problem
To keep minors off covered services, the rule implied that every user—including adults—would have to prove their age. The law did not set out the conditions and limits for that proof or provide sufficient legal guarantees to protect privacy. The Council’s finding concerns the inadequate safeguards in this law; it does not establish that every possible age-verification method is unconstitutional.
The Council found Article 1 unconstitutional and said it did not need to examine the other objections. It also stated that it had not ruled on provisions beyond those it examined.
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Did France’s law disappear?
No. Law No. 2026-813 was promulgated on 24 August 2026 with Article 1 marked as nonconforming to the Constitution. Other provisions remained, including school awareness measures on unmoderated screen exposure and social-network addictiveness, and an extension of restrictions on mobile-phone use to high schools. Each school’s internal rules are to set the arrangements and exceptions for applying the phone restriction, in keeping with its educational project. See Law No. 2026-813 on Légifrance.
In reporting published on 27 August 2026, Le Monde described practical work schools still faced, including amending internal rules and obtaining school-board votes to specify where phones could be used and what disciplinary measures would apply. Some principals expected implementation to be gradual; that was contemporaneous reporting, not a definitive account of every school’s later status. Le Monde’s 27 August report.
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What did the government say would happen next?
On the day of the ruling, President Emmanuel Macron said he had instructed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to work quickly on a legally robust proposal that took account of the Council’s decision and the European legal framework. He said the President, Government and Parliament would determine how to protect children online. This was the administration’s stated next step on 14 August 2026; it is not evidence by itself that a replacement measure was later introduced or enacted. Associated Press report, 14 August 2026.
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