Children under 15 in France should be banned entirely from using social media, and those aged between 15 and 18 should face a nighttime “digital curfew,” a French parliamentary committee urged on Thursday.

The recommendations were put forward in a report by the committee’s lawmakers after months of testimony from families, social media executives, and from influencers.

President Emmanuel Macron’s office has already indicated it wants to see a ban for children and young adolescents, after Australia last year started drafting its own landmark law with a prohibition for those under 16.

The committee had been set up in March, initially to examine TikTok and its psychological effects on minors after a 2024 lawsuit against the platform by seven families accusing the platform of exposing their children to content pushing them towards suicide.

Its lead report writer, Laure Miller, said the addictive design of TikTok and its algorithm “has been copied by other social media.”

TikTok has stressed that the safety of young users of its app is its “top priority.”

Geraldine, the mother of an 18-year-old woman who committed suicide, told AFP that, after her daughter’s death last year, she had discovered videos of self-harm her daughter had published and looked at on TikTok.

“TikTok didn’t kill our little girl, because she wasn’t well in any case,” said Geraldine, 52, who declined to be identified by her last name.

But she accused TikTok of falling short in its online moderation, and plunging her daughter deeper into her dark impulses.

TikTok testimony

Executives for TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDace, told the parliamentary committee that the app used AI-enhanced moderation that last year caught 98% of content infringing its terms of service in France.

But for the lawmakers, those efforts were deemed insufficient, and TikTok’s rules were “very easy to circumvent.”

It also found that harmful content continued to proliferate on the app, and TikTok’s algorithm was effective in drawing young users into loops reinforcing such content.

The committee’s report suggested that the ban on children under 15 using social media could be broadened to everyone under 18 if, within the next three years, the platforms did not respect European laws.

Its recommendation for a “digital curfew” for users aged 15 to 18 was for social media to be made unavailable to them between the hours of 10 pm and 8 am.

© 2025 AFP

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Earth mortar could be more resilient, flexible and stronger by adding plant fibers to the mix. The finding comes from research to better understand the strength and performance of raw earth mortar, which has been carried out by the University of Portsmouth’s School of Civil Engineering and Surveying. The work is published in the Journal of Building Engineering.

Dr. Muhammad Ali, Associate Professor in Materials and Environmental Innovation at the University, said, “The focus of research in construction using earth has increased in response to demand for low-cost and sustainable building materials. However, while the properties of compressed earth blocks have been widely investigated, there has been less attention given to the make-up of earth-based mortar—a rudimentary mix of water with natural earth consisting of sand, silt and clay.”

Building using materials where raw earth is the fundamental component is typically seen in middle and low income countries around the world. Earth-based mortars are widely used to bind together compressed earth blocks mainly because the materials are structurally compatible, breathable and, when combined, help interiors stay warm or keep cool as needed. The two materials are also sustainable and have the appeal of giving the finished structures a pleasing, natural appearance.

Raw earth mortar has a low environmental impact due to the availability and accessibility of earth—an abundant natural resource that can be locally sourced—and the minimal, simpler processing methods needed to produce it. But, when cement is used in the raw earth mortar mix, energy intensive production methods are required, and this has an adverse environmental impact.

The fresh and hardened properties of three raw earth mortar mixes were examined to determine the extent to which plant fibers from agricultural waste could replace the cement content of raw earth mortar to create an effective, more sustainable binding material.

The researchers used a variety of testing techniques, including compression testing, numerical modeling, finite element analysis and statistical analysis, working as far as possible to British Standards (BS), Eurocodes (EN) and criteria set by the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM).

According to the German Institute for Standardisation (DIN), load bearing structures bound by raw earth mortar must be able to cope with the pressure of weight equivalent to 2.00MPa (megapascal—a unit of pressure) or more and a shear strength (the amount of force it can bear before sliding apart) of 0.04MPa.

It was found that incorporating plant fibers in the raw earth mortar mix can prevent shrinkage, reduce cracking, and improve strength. When compared to stabilized earth mortar alone, adding 20 mm jute fibers at a dosage of 0.25% of the dry soil’s weight improved the raw earth mortar’s mechanical properties.

The result was a 12% increase in compressive strength—meaning the amount of pressure the mortar can withstand without fracturing or deforming went from 5.64 megapascals (MPa) to 6.31 MPa, and there was a 20% increase in flexural (shear) strength—i.e. the ability to bend or fold—from 1.20 MPa to 1.44 MPa.

Dr. Ali added, “Through this research we have been able to identify potential improvements for raw earth mortar to help further develop low-cost and environmentally friendly building materials around the world and support the creation of sustainable communities.

“It also aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which includes a target to ensure everyone has access to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services by 2030.”