Social media ban for under-15s, digital curfew at 10 p.m.... the TikTok commission's recommendations

A report that drives the point home. Yes, TikTok has devastating effects on young people, consider the parliamentarians who are releasing their report this Thursday, September 11. They therefore recommend—and are not the first—a ban on social media for those under 15. Such a ban, already called for by the Élysée Palace, would "send a signal to both children and parents that social media before the age of 15 is not harmless," summarizes MP Laure Miller (EPR), rapporteur of this parliamentary commission of inquiry, to AFP.

Launched in March , the commission spent several months interviewing victims' families, social media managers and influencers to dissect the algorithm of TikTok, an extremely popular application among young people whose design "has been copied by other social networks," recalls Laure Miller.

It was created in the wake of TikTok's lawsuit in late 2024, filed by a group of seven families accusing it of exposing their children to content that could lead them to suicide.

"It's difficult for us parents to moderate all this," Géraldine, 52, who is one of the plaintiffs and wishes to remain anonymous, told AFP. In February 2024, this mother lost her daughter, Pénélope, who committed suicide at the age of 18.

After her death, she discovered the self-harm videos her daughter was posting and viewing on TikTok. "It wasn't TikTok that killed our daughter, because she wasn't well anyway," explains Géraldine. But for this mother, who now denounces the lack of online moderation, the network "pushed" her daughter into a state of unhappiness. For its part, TikTok regularly claims to make the safety of young people "its top priority."

The report recommends going as far as a ban before the age of 18 if, within three years, "social networks do not satisfactorily comply with their legal obligations" , particularly with regard to the European regulation on digital services (DSA).

Before the commission, managers of TikTok, owned by the Chinese group ByteDance, had highlighted moderation boosted by artificial intelligence which would have allowed the platform to proactively remove 98% of content violating its terms of use in France last year.

But for the deputies, these efforts are insufficient, even "flawed," with rules that are "very easy to circumvent." "When you type the word 'suicide ,' they tell you to call a helpline: they hide behind that to say they're protecting children," regrets Géraldine, while this content remains accessible via other keywords or emojis.

Between September 2023 and December 2024, the number of French-speaking TikTok moderators decreased by 26%, according to data from its transparency reports. Harmful content thus continues to proliferate, coupled with particularly powerful recommendation algorithms that can trap young people in harmful bubbles, the commission of inquiry notes.

Other negative impacts of the network on minors, according to Laure Miller, include loss of attention and concentration, sleep disturbances or self-esteem problems, particularly for teenage girls faced with unattainable beauty standards.

For 15- to 18-year-olds, the report proposes the introduction of a "digital curfew" making social media inaccessible from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. It also recommends a widespread information campaign on the risks involved, followed by the creation of a "digital negligence offense" for "irresponsible parents."

Banning social media for those under 15 is a key issue for President Emmanuel Macron. Recent guidelines from the European Commission have "opened the door to national regulations," the key to which, according to Laure Miller, is the implementation of an age verification system for registration.

However, such measures are hampered by platform reluctance, technical limitations, and the risk of violating individual freedoms. A French law on digital majority, adopted in the summer of 2023, already requires parental authorization for children under 15 to access social media, but it has not yet come into force due to a lack of certainty regarding its compliance with European law.

The chairman of the parliamentary committee on TikTok, Arthur Delaporte (Socialist Party), announced Thursday that he had taken legal action for "endangering the lives" of users of the app, which is extremely popular among young people but is accused of harming their mental health. "At the end of this committee, the conclusion is clear: TikTok has deliberately endangered the health and lives of its users. This is why I have decided to refer the matter to the Paris public prosecutor," the MP told Franceinfo.

"It seems to me that there are criminal offenses" and also a crime of "perjury" on the part of TikTok's executives, added Arthur Delaporte. They "said they had no knowledge" of certain practices on the platform, when that would be false, he said.

Updated with the legal action taken by Arthur Delaporte