Better Internet for Kids

Here, we take an in-depth look at the latest monitoring information for France.

The issues covered by the BIK+ strategy - children’s online protection, empowerment and participation – are addressed in public policies in France. Over the past years, the French government has intensified its efforts to protect minors online, with direct involvement from the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister. This issue has been included in their governmental roadmap and regularly appears in public speeches. However, while significant progress has been made in areas related to safety, risk mitigation and excessive screen time, the educational and empowerment dimensions of the BIK+ strategy remain secondary in the national approach.

BIK policies

Policy design asks whether evidence and research support BIK-related policies and whether systems are in place for monitoring and evaluating those policies.

Policy frameworks

Policy frameworks describe the overarching approach for a better internet and establish the underlying goals, principles and guidelines that shape individual policies within this area.

In France:

• This topic is an important and emerging policy priority, with children’s online protection, digital empowerment, and digital participation partially covered in national/regional laws, regulations and policies.
• There are separate, dedicated policies that address children and the digital environment (protection, empowerment, and participation).
• The BIK+ strategy informs national policies but is not the main influence.
• Children's rights in relation to the digital environment are an important an emerging policy priority with specific policies in development on this topic.

Read the full Policy monitor country profile for detailed information on key national policy frameworks in France.

Read the full 2025 edition of the Policy monitor report.

Policy design

Policy design asks whether evidence and research support BIK-related policies and whether systems are in place for monitoring and evaluating those policies.

• Surveys of children’s digital activities are undertaken, but only irregularly.
• Surveys of children’s experiences of risks, harms and digital well-being are undertaken on an ad-hoc and irregular basis.
• At the governmental level, information is regularly gathered to inform policies on children and the digital environment. However, this relies primarily on third-party sources, and there are limited opportunities to commission new data on children's digital activity.
• Regarding research funding, there are occasional special initiatives to gather evidence about children and the digital environment.
• Policies are monitored and evaluated, but not systematically.

Read the full Policy monitor country profile for detailed information on recent national research studies in France.

Read the full 2025 edition of the Policy monitor report.

Policy governance

Policy governance examines how policies are coordinated at the governmental level, whether other implementation bodies are involved in their delivery, and whether structured mechanisms are available to guide their implementation. 

• Policy development sits across different ministries with leadership distributed according to the area of specialisation.
• Coordination of policies and their implementation is distributed across multiple entities.
• One or more programmes of action are underway supporting children’s online safety and participation in the digital environment. However, these lack accountability, such as defined timelines, assigned responsibilities or key performance indicators (KPIs).

Read the full Policy monitor country profile for detailed information on key policy governance mechanisms in France.

Read the full 2025 edition of the Policy monitor report.

Stakeholder involvement

Stakeholder involvement enquires how different stakeholders can participate in policy development. Children’s involvement in policy-making is one such key issue. Additionally, international knowledge exchange about children's digital participation is also relevant to this topic.

• Various ad hoc multistakeholder groups exist across different branches of government, in which stakeholders may contribute to policy deliberation and development.
• Members of the public are consulted on occasion in the course of the development of new policies. However, this is not always the case.
• There are limited opportunities for youth consultation on digital policies.
• Policymakers actively participate in various EU-level and other international inter-governmental groups related to digital policies for children.

BIK+ actions

Pillar 1 – safe digital experiences

Safe digital experiences refers to actions taken to protect children from harmful and illegal online content, conduct, contact, and risks as young consumers and to improve their well-being online through a safe, age-appropriate digital environment created in a way that respects children’s best interests.

Implementing EU laws

• The Law of 21 May 2024, aimed at securing and regulating the digital space, designates the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (ARCOM) as the Digital Services Coordinator in France.

Harmful online content

• France doesn’t have a specific legal definition for harmful online content, but there are policies/industry guidelines in place to address potentially harmful content.
• In November 2023, the French Standards Association (AFNOR) released the AFNOR SPEC 2305 guide titled ‘Risk Prevention and Protection of Minors on Social Media Platforms’ offering guidelines on account verification, age assurance, content moderation, and transparency measures to safeguard minors online. In August 2024, the French social platform Yubo, in partnership with AFNOR, developed a policy document outlining uniform standards to enhance online safety for minors.
• Pharos is a dedicated facility for reporting/removing harmful content. It is a government-led platform comprising law enforcement specialists from the Ministry of Interior. The facility is available to all, including children.
• France’s regulatory framework for online hate includes the Countering online hate law, May-June 2020, the ‘cyber-hate’ or ‘Avia’ law. This establishes France’s broad framework to counter hateful, discriminatory, terrorist, and child sexual abuse (CSA) content online, all of which are illegal under French law. 

Harmful online conduct

• National/regional laws, regulations or policies in place to protect children and young people from intimate image abuse are covered under the Penal Code.
• The relevant laws addressing bullying were also amended in March 2022 to include any bullying situation committed against minors online.
• The anti-bullying programme at school, pHARe, is a comprehensive plan for preventing and dealing with bullying. Implemented in 2021, extended to schools and colleges at the start of the 2022 school year, and extended to high schools since the start of the 2023 school year. 100% of schools and establishments are implementing this program.
• An Interministerial plan to combat harassment in schools was adopted in September 2023. Measures implemented against harassment in schools include dedicated lessons to prevent bullying and cyberbullying from the third class to the high school, systematic recording of instances of harassment, designation of harassment coordinators, training of staff to fight against bullying, and an annual barometer of harassment in schools.

Age verification

• The SREN Law (July 2024) introduced stricter age verification requirements for adult content and clarified platform liability regarding harmful online content.
• On 09 January 2025, ARCOM's technical standard for age verification systems came into force. This standard mandates that online services distributing pornographic content implement reliable age verification systems to prevent minors' access.
• France is developing its national EUDI Wallet in alignment with EU regulations, intending to make it available to all citizens by the EU's 2026 deadline.

Commercial content

• A Code of Conduct for Influencers was introduced in 2023, addressing content regulation for social media influence, including restrictions on promoting harmful behaviours (e.g. extreme dieting, cosmetic surgery).
• Influencers and brands are required to formalise their partnerships through written contracts governed by French law. Influencers must also clearly indicate when content is sponsored or includes advertising.

Mental health and well-being

• The French Ministry of Health has implemented measures to monitor risks and conduct prevention campaigns addressing depression and mental disorders among young people – this includes initiatives to mitigate the negative impacts of excessive screen time and online exposure.

Pillar 2 – digital empowerment

Digital empowerment incorporates actions so that all children, including those in vulnerable situations, acquire the necessary skills and competences to make sound choices and express themselves in the online environment safely and responsibly.

Supports for online safety education

• Online safety forms part of the national curriculum. The ministries responsible for National Education, Youth and Sports and Higher Education, Research, and Innovation have developed a digital skills reference framework (CRCN) inspired by the European framework (DIGCOMP) and valid from primary school to university.
• Since 2018, mobile phone use has been banned in French schools for students under 15 to reduce distractions and create a better learning environment. In September 2024, around 200 middle schools launched a pilot programme requiring 50,000 students to deposit their phones upon arrival and retrieve them at the end of the school day.
• The Phare programme is mandatory for all middle and high schools since the start of the 2023 school year. The programme aims to achieve the objective of 100% of schools and colleges included, to systematise the communication of the emergency number 3018, to train all staff in the fight against school bullying and to prevent or resolve the most complex situations, particularly in primary schools. 

Digital literacy skills to empower young people

• In January 2023, the French Ministry of Education unveiled a comprehensive digital strategy to enhance digital literacy across all educational levels. The Digital Strategy for Education 2023-2027  emphasises the development of students' competencies in various digital domains, ensuring they are well-prepared for the evolving digital landscape.
• PIX certification allows users to certify a digital skills profile and be recognised by the state and the professional world. It is an asset in the student's search for an internship, their progress in higher education, and their professional integration. The PIX certification process is mandatory from year eight, and final certification is mandatory for the final school exam in middle school and the final school exam in high school.
• Education in media literacy and critical analysis of the information system is part of the school curriculum via a domain called EMI (Education aux médias et à l'information). EMI is part of the common core of knowledge, skills, and culture, as well as the citizenship pathway and the artistic and cultural education pathway. The guidelines for cycles two and three and the programmes for cycle four define a teaching framework in which all disciplines participate.

Pillar 3 – active participation, respecting children’s rights

Active participation, respecting children’s rights, refers to actions which give children and young people a say in the digital environment, with more child-led activities to foster innovative and creative safe digital experiences.

Active participation

• Youth participation takes place via the Safer Internet France network, but beyond that, there is no clear coordinating national/regional directive on this topic. However, efforts are underway to try to increase youth participation.
• The ‘Parlement des enfants’ project (the ‘Children's Parliament’ project) allows schoolchildren, through the practice of dialogue and democratic debate, to discover the role of the legislator during a class work carried out during part of the school year on an annual theme relating to current societal subjects. Topics may include policies related to children's use of the Internet. Youth councils get children involved on a local level. 

Supporting children's rights

• In November 2021, France issued a call urging governments, online service providers and relevant organisations to prioritise children’s safety and rights in the digital realm.
• The Children Online Protection Lab (2022) is dedicated to developing and promoting solutions that enhance the online safety of minors, fostering collaboration between governments, organisations, and the private sector.

Digital inclusion

• The National Plan for Digital Inclusion (2018) focuses on providing support and training to 1.5 million individuals in digital technologies and 21st-century skills, strongly emphasising combating the digital divide. The plan aspires to achieve digital inclusion for at least one-third of the French population over the next decade.

Read the full Policy monitor country profile for some best practice examples from France.

Read the full 2025 edition of the Policy monitor report.

BIK+ index 2025: France

The BIK+ index has been developed to provide an aggregated at-a-glance overview of the levels of implementation across the two dimensions, BIK policies and BIK+ actions, in France compared to the EU27+2 average. Values are shown in per cent.

Please note, the data used in this page and the corresponding country profile was collected in February 2025.