French lawmakers have passed a new law that will ban under fifteens from using social media. The ban will come into effect in September, making France the first country in Europe to restrict access for younger teenagers to platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat.
A number of other countries are set to bring in similar restrictions, with the UK aiming to implement its social media ban for under sixteens next spring, while Spain, Greece and Denmark are also planning minimum age rules for social media use.
Meanwhile, European Union lawmakers are proposing further regulation of social media, including forcing more algorithm transparency and introducing an influencer code of conduct.
Opinion remains very divided on how effective any of this regulation of social media will actually be. However, as more countries ramp up the regulation it will have an impact on artists and creators who are seeking to reach younger audiences, and may result in the social media platforms evolving more services specifically aimed at younger users that address regulator concerns.
A French Parliamentary Commission formally proposed a social media ban for under fifteens last year. There was subsequently disagreement between the upper and lower house of the French Parliament - the Senate and National Assembly - regarding how the ban should be implemented.
The Senate favoured a narrower approach but the Assembly wanted a wider ban. It was the Assembly’s approach that passed into law earlier this week.
The ban will come into force in two stages. From September, people under fifteen will not be able to set up social media accounts, meaning social media platforms will have to have age verification in place for new subscribers. Then from next January the rule will apply to existing accounts, meaning every social media user in France will have to prove they are fifteen or older.
Prior to the Parliamentary votes, France’s Digital Minister Anne Le Hénanff insisted that timeline was realistic, adding that “age-verification tools already exist” and others are still in the works. Following the votes, she stated, “France will become the first country in Europe to introduce a digital age limit to better protect our children online”.
Australia banned anyone under the age of sixteen from using social media at the end of last year. The UK government then announced it would introduce a similar ban last month, with plans to present proposals that will put that ban into law in Parliament this autumn.
There have also been debates about introducing a social media ban for children at European Union level, though possibly only for under thirteens. Most social media platforms have their own restrictions for under thirteens already, though the EU’s proposals would formalise those restrictions in law.
EU law-makers have also been discussing other ways to ramp up regulation of social media, especially in relation to children, but in some cases more generally. The European Parliament’s culture committee recently endorsed a report that proposes more regulation built around four principles: privacy-by-design, safety-by-default, age-appropriate design and algorithmic transparency.
On social media algorithms, the committee’s report said there is a need for “increased transparency”, because “opaque algorithms and content moderation hampers the ability of young users to understand why certain content is recommended, suppressed or removed, intentionally undermining their capacity to navigate online content”.
The committee also put the spotlight on the possible need to better regulate the influencers and creators who publish content on social media platforms, who, MEPs noted, have an “increasingly significant role" in "shaping the perceptions, aspirations and social attitudes of children and young people”.
To that end, the MEPs said the European Commission and individual EU member states should “develop an EU code of conduct for this activity”, as well as coming up with a “harmonised definition” for the term “influencer marketing”.
There are, of course, plenty of people and organisations who oppose all this ramped up social media regulation, with some arguing that the social media ban for under sixteens in Australia hasn’t really worked, with lots of younger teens still accessing the platforms.
Unsurprisingly, the social media companies themselves don’t like the bans and extra regulation, usually arguing that they have introduced their own safeguards for younger users.
However, given it seems likely that an ever increasing number of countries are going to start banning younger people from accessing social media, you have to think those platforms will at least start to consider developing alternative products for younger users that address regulator concerns.
YouTube already has its YouTube For Kids service for much younger users and TikTok has a watch-only version for under thirteens in the US. Could we see these platforms develop standalone products for younger teenagers that are able to get regulator approval and, if so, what would that mean for the artists and creators who are looking to engage those audiences?
That said, the extent to which the platforms look into developing such standalone products may depend on how big an impact these bans and other new regulations really have.