A ‘slap’ for Emmanuel Macron, a decision destined to cause discussion, but above all a hard epilogue for the Elysée to digest: because it was unexpected and because it sanctions a law strongly supported by the president, who had made it a flag and had long boasted of its beneficial effects on adolescents.
The Constitutional Council, France’s highest judicial body, has “censored” – rejecting many fundamental aspects – the ban on children under 15 from visiting and intervening on social networks.
For the so-called “Wise Men”, the Lecornu government’s law entails a “disproportionate violation” of the freedom of expression of minors. Immediately, on this eve of August 15th in which French politics was taking a breather, Macron ordered the counter-move by asking the prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, already very busy with fires and preparing for a very difficult financial situation, to “work” on a “legally robust rewriting” of the law that bans social media for very young people. And to do it “in the shortest possible time”. The Elysée spoke of the “absolute determination” of the head of state to pass “by spring 2027” this law which is particularly close to his heart due to its harmful consequences on children’s addiction to the web. For Macron it would be a matter of keeping a crucial promise of his second presidential term a month after his final exit from the Elysée.
The “Wise Men” were called to rule on the constitutionality of the anti-social law by some socialist deputies and from Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left, La France Insoumise. Article 1 of the law which aims to protect minors from the excessive power of social media is targeted. The Council found that the provision banning social media for those under 15 “infringes in an inappropriate, unnecessary and disproportionate way” what must be their freedom of expression and communication. And this while admitting “the constitutional need to protect the best interests of the adolescent”. In fact, the provision, inspired and subsequently praised by Macron, risks being “applied to online communication services whose risks to the health and safety of minors – judges the Constitutional Council – have not been ascertained”.
Scheduled to come into force from September 1st, the law would have provided for the exclusion of minors under 15 years of age from the various TikTok, Snapchat, Exceptions (too limited for the judges) were made for online encyclopedias and educational and scientific apps. The harmful effects, which according to the “Wise Men” are not proven, concern the increasingly numerous cases of anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, online harassment, which the French government would have liked to put a stop to. With the support, which is now growing in intensity year after year, of associations for the defense of minors. Strengthened by a widespread consensus in society but difficult to unite, the judgment of the “Wise Men” explains that, although justified in its intention to protect minors, the legislative provision prohibits all social networks without distinction and involves all minors under 15 years of age. And the judges were shocked by this indiscriminate provision: for the ban to comply with the Constitution, the law must take into account the functionality and risks posed by each of the individual social networks. An identical reproach for not making a distinction was addressed to the article which indicates “without distinction all young people under 15 years of age, without adapting to their age, level of maturity, or family situation”. Furthermore, the Council also criticizes the government for “not having left any margin for parents to authorize certain social networks and not others for their children”.