French President Emmanuel Macron said he would push for European Union legislation to ban children under 15 from social media after a deadly stabbing at a school in eastern France, the latest such violent attack to shock the country.
Macron said in an interview on Tuesday night that he hoped to see results in the next few months.
“If it doesn’t work, we will start doing it in France. We can’t wait,” he told public broadcaster France 2, hours after the deadly stabbing at a primary school in Nogent, in the Haute-Marne region.
Police were questioning a 14-year-old student on Tuesday over the stabbing of a 31-year-old school assistant during a search of his bag for weapons.
Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told parliament that the incident was not an isolated incident. Macron said social media was one of the factors to blame for youth violence.
Writing on social media platform X after the interview, Macron said experts supported the legislation.
“Platforms have the ability to verify your age. Do it,” he wrote.
Macron’s comments come amid a wave of measures in countries around the world aimed at restricting children’s use of social media.
Australia last year approved a ban on social media for under-16s after an emotional public debate, setting a benchmark for jurisdictions around the world, with some of the strictest regulations targeting big tech firms.
While most social media platforms do not allow children under 13 to use their platforms, a report by Australia’s online safety regulator found that children easily circumvent such restrictions, Reuters reported.
