Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Legislators in France took the first step toward becoming the first European country to block children from social media with a ban that would take effect at the beginning of the new school year in September.
National Assembly members voted 116-23 for the ban for children younger than 15, which was introduced by a lawmaker representing France's Champagne region in President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party, late Monday.
The MPs amended the bill to empower the country's media regulator to decide which social media services will be included in the ban and not limited to just those most popular with teens such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram.
The law would use an as-yet-undecided method of age-verification to block children from accessing those sites the regulator determines are most harmful to children's mental and emotional health.
An existing smartphone ban for children in junior and middle schools would also be extended to high schools, under the legislation.
