Post #1919655

For all those who aren't tuned into french politics: France is currently fast-tracking a law proposal through our legislature that would ban the creation and use of social media accounts for under-15s, alongside mandatory age verification by as early as January 1st next year (see https://www.france24.com/en/france/20260126-french-lawmakers-to-vote-on-social-media-ban-under-15s ), under the guise of "protecting children from online bullying, emotional turmoil and over-exposure to screens". i don't think i need to tell you how much bullshit that is, especially coming from the fucking fascists governing us who would rather send teens and young adults to army training instead, but it bears repeating nonetheless. The proposal is currently being RUSHED through parliament and the Senate, and it already cleared the first one. It would mandate age verification for all social media accounts in the same vein as the UK's Online Safety Act or Australia's recent internet law, with software apparently already ready to be deployed by the government. The scope of that law is unclear, and it's being amended in such a way that potentially even platforms such as YouTube or Twitch could fall under its scope. France has already tried to adopt such laws in the past and it's been a recurring desire of our politicians, but this time it's 1) rushed and the government is seemingly already ready to deploy its own age verification solution and 2) there is very little opposition (nor time to build any because of the fast-track procedure). If France manages to adopt such a law, it could be a horrible precedent for other EU countries. The EU Commission stated yesterday that France is totally allowed to have such a law on the books and that they would help force platforms to comply.