Overview
- France’s National Assembly cultural and education committee approved a rewritten bill that prohibits under-15s from accessing social networks, sending it to a January 26 plenary vote.
- The proposal creates a two-tier regime with a decree-defined list of platforms deemed dangerous for minors after Arcom’s advice, while others would require parental authorization.
- Lawmakers dropped ideas such as a digital curfew and a negligence offense, and added an extension of the mobile phone ban to secondary schools starting in the 2026 school year.
- France reworked the text after the Conseil d’État said the EU’s Digital Services Act blocks member states from imposing unilateral verification mandates on large platforms.
- In Australia, regulators said platforms revoked or restricted about 4.7 million suspected child accounts since December; Meta alone removed nearly 550,000 the day after the law took effect, with penalties up to A$49.5 million and approved age checks including ID, third-party facial estimation, or data-based inferences.