French President Emmanuel Macron said he would push for European Union-wide regulations to ban children under 15 from accessing social media, following a deadly knife attack at a school in eastern France.
Macron said he hoped results would be visible in the coming months, Reuters reported.
Greece, supported by France and Spain, is leading efforts to push the EU to significantly limit the time teenagers can spend online, but Macron wants to move faster.
"If it doesn't work, we will start introducing it in France. We can't wait," he told public broadcaster France 2, hours after a school assistant in Nogent, in the Haut-Marne department, was stabbed to death during a bag check for weapons.
Macron also announced that age checks will soon be introduced in France on sites that sell knives online, similar to measures that apply to pornographic sites.
"A 15-year-old will no longer be able to buy a knife online. That means we will impose huge financial sanctions and bans," he promised.
Police questioned a 14-year-old student on Tuesday on suspicion of stabbing a 31-year-old school assistant to death.
Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told parliament that the incident was not an isolated case. Macron said social media was one of the factors contributing to violence among young people and stressed that such regulation was supported by experts.
"Platforms have the ability to verify someone's age. Let them do it," he said.
Reuters reports that numerous countries around the world are implementing measures aimed at restricting the use of social media among children.
Australia last year approved a ban on social media for under-16s, setting one of the strictest regulatory standards aimed at big tech companies.
Although most social networks formally prohibit access by children under the age of 13, a report by the Australian Internet Safety Regulator showed that children easily circumvent these restrictions.
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