France's top court blocks a social media ban for children under 15

The Constitutional Council of France blocked a bill that would have banned social media access for minors under 15. President Emmanuel Macron ordered prime minister Sebastien Lecornu to rework the draft and resubmit it to the council. The ban therefore did not take effect in the form that was passed to the court. The next step ordered is a revised text.

The Constitutional Council is the French body that reviews laws against the constitution. A block at that stage stops the bill as presented. The age in the proposal is under 15. The subject is social media access for minors.

The president's order is directed at the prime minister, Sebastien Lecornu. Reworking and resubmitting means the government is told to try again with a revised draft, not that the policy goal has been dropped in the report. The note does not describe the council's legal reasoning point by point.

No vote count from the council is given. No list of platforms covered by the bill is included. No start date survives, because the bill was blocked. The age threshold of 15 is the figure that was in the rejected text.

Other technology and child-safety news in nearby days concerned different countries and different remedies. This French decision is a constitutional block followed by an order to redraft. It is not a criminal case against a company. It is a review of legislation.

The confirmed sequence is a proposed ban for minors under 15, a block by the Constitutional Council, and an instruction from Macron to Lecornu to revise the bill and send it back. Until a new text passes review, the report does not treat the ban as in force. The council's detailed legal reasoning is not set out in the short note.