French President Emmanuel Macron has issued a stern challenge to Brussels, insisting his country will ban under 15s from accessing social media if the bloc doesn’t implement it. Speaking to France 2, Mr Macron said: “We must ban social media for those under 15.
“I’m giving us a few months to get the European mobilisation going. Otherwise…we’ll start doing it in France. We can’t wait,” he told the public television channel. His intervention comes after a teaching assistant died after being stabbed outside a middle school in Nogent, in the Haute-Marne department in the north east of the country on Tuesday.
A 14-year-old suspect was arrested at the scene, and education officials told AFP he “appeared to be a student at the school”.
Mr Macron also announced that age verification will soon be introduced on websites selling knives online, akin to measures already in place on pornographic sites.
He said: “A 15-year-old will no longer be able to buy a knife online.
“That means we’re going to impose massive financial sanctions and bans.”
French PM François Bayrou has also announced his desire to introduce a swift ban on the sale of “all knives” to minors, as per Politico.