India, July 23 -- France bans social media access for under-15s: What it means After Australia banned social media access for children under-16 in 2025, now France has become the first EU country to ban social media for children under 15 to protect youth mental health, combat cyberbullying, and prevent internet addiction. What does the law say? French lawmakers, on July 21, adopted a bill banning children under 15 from using social media. Starting September 1, they cannot create new accounts on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X, YouTube, and WhatsApp, without age verification. By January 2027, all existing underage accounts in the country will be forcibly closed. Additionally, smartphones are now entirely banned across French high schools. How will France enforce the ban? To comply with strict European GDPR laws, France reportedly plans to use digital identity wallets, powered by zero-knowledge proofs. Users verify their age to a secure government/EU wallet, which issues an anonymous digital token to social networks confirming they are over 15, without revealing personal details. What are the concerns? According to reports, critics have flagged off concerns about the blanket ban. Privacy Risks: Requiring adult verification could force users to upload IDs, threatening online anonymity. Circumvention: Teens can easily bypass restrictions using VPNs or fake details. Legal friction: Questions linger over whether blanket digital ID checks violate constitutional rights. What did Australia do? France seems to be following Australia, which pioneered a blanket under-16 ban in 2025 by placing the financial liability (fines up to A$49.5M) directly on tech companies rather than on children and parents. Instead of relying on users to simply enter their birthdate, platforms are required to implement multiple layers of age verification. Biometric age estimation: Platforms like Instagram use specialized third-party providers (such as Yoti) to analyse a brief video selfie. The provider sends only a pass/fail confirmation back to the platform, and both companies delete the facial data immediately after. Third-party vouching: Entities that already know a user's age provide a single, encrypted attestation (e.g., "this user is over 16") without sharing underlying personal records. Device-level verification: Apple's Declared Age Range API allows the operating system to attest to an age bracket directly from the device without transferring birthdates or documents....