Social media ban for children. EU weighs bans.

An ocean of harmful content is flooding the youngest

Have social media become the biggest threat to the mental health of the young generation? French MPs have issued a report calling for radical steps. Laure Miller, the report’s author, warns of an “ocean of harmful content” filled with videos “promoting suicides and self-harm” and “showing all kinds of violence.” Hence the report proposes a ban on social media for children under 15 and a “digital curfew” from 22:00 to 8:00 for teenagers aged 15–18.

The TikTok platform, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance and counting more than 1.5 billion users, has become the main target of criticism. Miller argues that the app locks young users into hermetic “bubbles” of such content, using an addictive algorithm that “has been copied by other social media.” The idea already has the support of French President Emmanuel Macron.

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Will a social media ban for children save the young?

Real tragedies stand behind the report. Géraldine, the mother of an 18-year-old who died by suicide last year, discovered after her daughter’s death videos of self-harm that the girl had posted and watched on TikTok. “TikTok didn’t kill our little girl, because she wasn’t feeling well anyway,” the 52-year-old told France24. She accuses the platform, however, of improper moderation and of deepening her daughter’s dark impulses.

A similar alarm has sounded in Sweden. Health Minister Jakob Forssmed warns: “We are losing an entire generation to endless scrolling and harmful content.” Speaking to POLITICO, he adds that social media use among youth is “the most important health issue there is.”

At the urging of Swedish politicians, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, announced the creation of an expert panel to study Australia’s model of banning social media for people under 16. The European Commission is to issue a recommendation for the entire European Union by the end of the year.

TikTok on the defensive

A TikTok spokesperson “categorically rejects the misleading presentation” by French MPs, claiming the platform has become a “scapegoat” for broader social problems. The company also emphasizes that the safety of young users is its “top priority,” touting 98 percent effectiveness for AI-assisted moderation. French lawmakers, however, point to how easy it is to circumvent the rules — it is enough to use euphemisms instead of keywords like “suicide.”

Will France really follow countries such as Australia, where by December 2025 people under 16 will not be allowed to use social media? Will similar steps be taken across the European Union? And will a social media ban for children actually make the related problems disappear?

Read the original article: Social media nie dla dzieci. UE rozważa wprowadzenie zakazów