French President Emmanuel Macron has been the global leader in promoting a ban on social media for kids, consistently welcoming countries that propose such measures with a “thanks for joining the movement” tweet. That includes Canada, which received its congratulatory tweet after a ban was included in Bill C-34. As I argued last month, however, I believe the Canadian ban is vulnerable to constitutional challenge on at least two fronts: freedom of expression, since blocking an entire cohort of Canadians from accessing information and expressing themselves on social media infringes Section 2(b) of the Charter, and privacy, since enforcing the ban will require millions of Canadians to verify their age to use social media services with the promised safeguards nowhere in place when the ban takes effect. Last week, France became the first major jurisdiction to have such a ban reviewed by its highest constitutional court, and it proceeded to strike down the law on substantially the same two constitutional concerns.

The French Parliament adopted a social media ban for kids under 15 on July 21st, with the law scheduled to take effect in September. But France’s system of constitutional review led the ban to be reviewed by the constitutional court, resulting in it being assessed and rejected before ever taking effect. Macron responded to the ruling by instructing Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to rework the legislation to address the court’s concerns, with the government now targeting spring 2027 for a revised law.