France Eyes VPN Restrictions as Parliament Advances Ban on Under-15s Using Social Media

France’s push to prevent children under 15 from using social media has moved forward: deputies in the National Assembly approved a key vote and transmitted the bill to the Senate, setting the stage for intensified debate on enforcement. The minister in charge of digital and AI affairs publicly suggested virtual private networks (VPNs) could be examined as a way to limit circumvention, shifting the conversation from platform registration rules to potential network‑level measures. That shift forces policymakers to weigh blunt, technically enforceable controls — such as telecom-backed identity checks or network filtering — against privacy‑preserving, but easier‑to‑evade, approaches. Requiring platforms to implement robust age verification would increase the amount of sensitive personal data collected and stored, concentrating attractive targets for attackers and raising breach risk. Experience abroad offers a cautionary roadmap: after age‑check rules were rolled out in the UK, independent indicators showed a marked rise in VPN usage and platforms have adopted uneven verification strategies, underlining how regulation can trigger circumvention pressure and an uneven compliance landscape. Platform responses ranged from stricter sign‑up gates to site‑specific restrictions aimed at particular markets; some operators have framed such moves as practical compliance while observers warned they can displace traffic to non‑compliant services. Beyond privacy and security concerns, these measures carry commercial consequences: steering users away from large, verifiable platforms can shrink visible audiences, alter advertising reach and change moderation burdens. The legal and technical complexity is substantial — blocking encrypted tunnels or imposing mandatory identity checks will prompt proportionality and fundamental‑rights scrutinies under France’s constitution and EU law. Implementation choices (fingerprinting, SIM‑based verification, device attestation, network filtering) each create different operational costs and civil‑liberties trade‑offs, and many would require coordination with telecoms, platforms or browser and OS vendors. Smaller services are likely to face disproportionate compliance burdens, while determined users and tech‑savvy actors may adopt more sophisticated circumvention tools, complicating enforcement metrics. With the bill moving to the Senate, forthcoming debates and potential amendments will determine whether France prioritises enforceability at the expense of broad privacy protections or seeks mitigations that protect minors while limiting collateral harm to digital rights.