To go on TikTok or Snapchat when you are under 15, you will now need the consent of your parents. The Assembly voted this Thursday this obligation for social networks to verify the age of users. The bill, led by the boss of the Horizons deputies Laurent Marcangeli, was adopted almost unanimously at first reading, in an atmosphere of harmony that has become rare at the Palais-Bourbon. It must now be considered in the Senate.
Rejecting any “moralizing discourse”, Laurent Marcangeli defended “essential safeguards” to be put in the face of “the growing precocity of digital puberty and the power of the tools made available to our young people”. Pornography, cyberbullying, unattainable standards of beauty or even addictive processes to capture attention: during the debates, the deputies listed the various risks against which the youngest had to be protected.
Fines to the networks in the event of a breach
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, which left the possibility of fixing it between 13 and 16 years old. But this threshold concerns more broadly the age under which parental consent is required for the personal data of a minor to be processed. Not really applied, it had no impact in terms of children’s access to social networks.
In the event of a breach, a fine may be imposed on the company, up to 1% of its worldwide turnover. The text, which was debated as part of a day reserved for the Horizons group (ally of the macronists), also gives parents the possibility of requesting the suspension of the account of a child under the age of 15.