French President Emmanuel Macron at the inauguration of the Franco-Indian Center for Artificial Intelligence in Health, New Delhi, India, February 18, 2026. LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP
"It's clear that in the system today, something is rotten. When you look at the situation of our children or teenagers, when you think about social media and if you add to it some AI chatbot, this is the beginning of a terrible situation," said Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, February 18, at an event held alongside the Global Artificial Intelligence Summit, which took place from February 16 to February 20 in New Delhi. The French president was supporting remarks made earlier during a conference organized by Anne Le Hénanff, the minister delegate for AI and digital affairs. Its aim was to promote the theme of child protection, with a particular focus on chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta AI, Grok and others.
"The mass adoption of AI, at an unprecedented speed, is bringing about new dangers. We must protect our children in their digital lives," explained the minister, drawing a direct parallel with the proposed law banning social media for minors under 15, which was passed in January by the Assemblée Nationale. "We are going to use the same approach: relying on scientific consensus," she explained.
