Stop children using smartphones until they are 13, says French report

The hard-hitting report said children needed to be protected from the tech industry ‘using all forms of cognitive bias to shut [them] away on their screens’. Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images

Children should not be allowed to use smartphones until they are 13 and should be banned from accessing conventional social media such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat until they are 18, according to a report by experts commissioned by Emmanuel Macron.

The French president had asked scientists and experts to suggest screen use guidelines for children with a view to France taking unprecedented steps on limiting their exposure. It was unclear how the government might now proceed after the report’s publication. Macron said in January: “There might be bans, there might be restrictions.”