The French Parliament voted on Thursday requiring social media platforms like TikTok, Snapchat or Instagram to verify the age of their users and parental consent when they are under 15.
After a unanimous green light from the National Assembly the day before, the bill obtained that of the Senate. The date of entry into force of the text is uncertain and depends in particular on an opinion that the European Commission will have to issue on its compliance with EU law.
Social networks will then have one year to comply with their obligations for new registrations, and two years for existing accounts, even if the technical modalities are still the subject of consultation.
“Rest assured that we will ensure that this text can be applied as soon as possible”, promised Jean-Noël Barrot, the Minister in charge of the Digital Transition, welcoming a measure “which will mark a milestone”.
The “numerical majority” at 15 to which the text refers is not new: it was introduced in France in 2018 in application of European legislation.
But this threshold concerns more broadly the age under which parental consent is required for the personal data of a minor to be processed. Above all, it is not really applied.
In theory, social networks are not open in France to people under 13 years old. But the first registration would occur on average around 8 and a half years, and more than half of 10-14 year olds are present there, according to the French National Commission for Computing and Freedoms (CNIL).
French singularity, social networks will expose themselves, in the event of a breach, to a sanction, with a fine of up to 1% of the company’s global turnover.
The text also allows a holder of parental authority to request the suspension of the account of a child under 15 years of age. And it requires networks to activate a time-of-use monitoring device for minors.
From pornography to online harassment, via unattainable standards of beauty or addictive processes to capture attention, the parliamentarians, during the debates, spelled out the risks from which the youngest had to be protected.
The text “will not be enough to put an end to the abuses on its own”, admitted its initiator Laurent Marcangeli on Wednesday, calling for “advance on age verification techniques and to invest massively in digital education for parents. , children and teachers.
It is not a question of “depriving young people of access to a social network, but of providing an appropriate response to the abuses born of early and unsupervised use”, underlined Thursday Alexandra Borchio Fontimp (LR) , rapporteur of the text in the Senate.
These new provisions are part of a series of initiatives from the presidential camp.
A text to protect the image rights of children on social networks was recently adopted at first reading by the two chambers, which have yet to reach a common version. The Assembly also adopted at first reading in March measures against the overexposure of children to screens.
The government will defend from July 4 in the Senate a bill to “secure and regulate the digital space”. With in particular measures to make effective the obligation for pornographic sites to verify that their users are of legal age.
Age verification “is the mother of battles,” Barrot insisted on Thursday.