PARIS: The National Assembly, France’s lower house, on Thursday approved in the first reading a bill on mandatory parental consent for the use of social networks by teenagers aged under 15, reported Sputnik.
During the plenary meeting, the lower house approved in an 82-to-2 vote the mandatory age verification for users on social networking apps like TikTok or Snapchat. The house also approved in the first reading the mandatory parental consent for the use of social media by teenagers aged under 15.
Currently, TikTok users must be over 13 years old to sign up for the app. However, according to the text of the bill, most children claim to be older than they really are while signing up for social networking apps.
“Eighty-two per cent of children aged 10 to 14 regularly spend time online without the supervision of their parents,” the text read.
The bill must be approved by the French Senate, the upper house, to become law.
Launched by Chinese company ByteDance in 2018, TikTok has since become a leader in the short video app segment and has turned into one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide.
In December of last year, several US governors prohibited state officials from using TikTok on their devices and at state premises. The European Union’s institutions followed suit earlier this year. TikTok called these measures groundless and politically motivated.
On Wednesday, French government spokesman Olivier Veran said that French President Emmanuel Macron and all ministers in the French cabinet had abandoned the use of TikTok on their work phones over user privacy concerns. – BERNAMA
