Online safety in France: the EU Digital Services Act (2026)

The Sénat adopted a modified version of the proposition de loi to protect minors from social-media risks, sending it back to the National Assembly for a second reading; if enacted it would impose a hard age floor with mandatory age verification. It marks France's move from platform self-regulation toward a statutory under-15 ban.

Deputies approved the flagship article (116 to 23) banning social-media access for under-15s and suspending existing minors' accounts, under accelerated procedure. The text could take effect for the September 2026 school year.

Following a September referral by MP Arthur Delaporte, the Paris public prosecutor's office launched a preliminary investigation into TikTok's algorithm allegedly steering minors toward self-harm and suicide content. It is one of the first French criminal inquiries targeting a platform's recommender system.

A National Assembly commission of inquiry, after 178 hearings and 30,000+ public responses, issued a ~300-page report finding TikTok intentionally addictive and dangerous for minors, with 43 recommendations. It fueled momentum for the under-15 ban and the criminal referral.

Arcom formally put on notice pornographic sites established elsewhere in the EU but accessible in France for lacking compliant age verification, threatening blocking and delisting. The sites then deployed verification solutions, so blocking proceedings were dropped.

A ministerial order (decree of 26 Feb 2025, published 6 March) named 17 popular EU-established video-sharing porn platforms, including Pornhub, YouPorn and xHamster, that must enforce Arcom's age-verification standard or face blocking. It extended SREN's reach to sites outside France.

Arcom issued the final technical standard requiring pornographic sites to verify users' ages using privacy-preserving 'double anonymity' solutions, with a transition period to 11 April 2025. Non-compliance can trigger fines up to €150,000 or 2% of global turnover and 48-hour blocking orders.

Law n°2024-449 to secure and regulate the digital space designated Arcom as France's Digital Services Coordinator (with CNIL and DGCCRF), mandated age verification for porn sites, and added duties on illegal content, online harassment and cloud markets. It is the cornerstone of France's current online-safety regime.

Law n°2023-566 established a 'digital majority' of 15, requiring social networks to refuse registration to under-15s without parental consent and to warn minors of online risks, with fines up to 1% of global turnover. It laid the legal groundwork for later age-verification and ban efforts.

The Conseil constitutionnel invalidated the 24-hour mandatory takedown obligation and related fines as a disproportionate threat to free expression, gutting the Loi Avia. The ruling shaped France's later, DSA-aligned approach to illegal-content removal.

Law n°2014-1353 empowered the Interior Ministry (via OCLCTIC), without prior court order, to require removal and to block/delist sites glorifying terrorism or hosting child sexual abuse material, with CNIL-appointed oversight. It introduced extrajudicial content blocking into French law.

Law n°2004-575 (Loi pour la confiance dans l'économie numérique) transposed the EU e-Commerce Directive, defining publisher vs. hosting-provider liability, shielding hosts from general monitoring duties while requiring notice-and-takedown of illegal content. It remains the bedrock of French online-content law.