https://www.franceinfo.fr/internet/reseaux-sociaux/une-course-contre-la-montre-a-demarre-gabriel-attal-appelle-a-un-referendum-sur-l-interdiction-des-reseaux-aux-moins-de-15-ans_8149565.html

Translation

"A race against time has begun": Gabriel Attal calls for a referendum on banning social media for those under 15

As soon as the Constitutional Council announced its censure, Emmanuel Macron asked the Prime Minister on Friday to propose a new, "legally robust" draft of the text.

Presidential candidate Gabriel Attal, a member of the Renaissance party, called on Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, August 15, to submit to a referendum the ban on social media for those under 15, following the Constitutional Council's rejection of the law passed by Parliament. "It has been twenty-one years since the French people were consulted directly. For so many French people, myself included, this is incomprehensible. There are few such opportune moments to give them back their voice ," the former Prime Minister wrote in La Tribune on Sunday.(New window).

As soon as the Constitutional Council's decision was announced, the President asked the Prime Minister on Friday to propose a new, "legally robust" draft of the text . Gabriel Attal, who was heavily involved in the parliamentary work that led to the law on social media, believes that holding a referendum would address the need for speed. "A race against time has begun. If we were to start from scratch with a new legislative process, it would probably take up to two years for the ban to come into effect. That would leave 1.5 million children, every day, for an average of 1 hour and 47 minutes, in the clutches of algorithms ," stated Gabriel Attal.

Gabriel Attal believes it is possible to hold a referendum, as such a text falls within the scope of Article 11 of the Constitution.(New window)" A child protection law containing a ban on social networks for those under 15 falls under the nation's 'social policy' ," he asserts.