France is at it again. Or at least, their president—Emmanuel Macron—is at it again. Macron has decided that the biggest problem in the world today is that your 14-year-old is looking at dance videos on TikTok. He is pushing a **social media ban for children under 15**, calling it a **'digital age of consent.'** I call it a desperate cry for attention from a man who is watching his country fall apart at the seams. It is the classic move of a politician who has no real ideas left for **social media regulation** or youth safety.

Let’s look at the facts. Macron thinks he can just flip a switch and make the internet go away for kids. It’s a joke. It’s a bad joke told by a guy who thinks he’s the smartest person in any room. He’s just another suit trying to look like he’s doing something while doing absolutely nothing. He says he wants to protect the children. Whenever a politician says they want to protect the children through **internet censorship**, you should grab your wallet and run. They aren't trying to save the kids. They are trying to control the parents and make themselves look like heroes.

The right wing will tell you this is about 'family values' or some other nonsense they don't actually believe in. They love the idea of the state stepping in when it suits their moral compass. They want to control what you see and what you think. They think if they can keep kids off the internet, they can keep them from learning things the church or the party doesn't like. It’s about power, plain and simple. They want a world where information is a drip-feed they control with an iron fist. They don't care about the kids; they care about the next generation of voters being as dumb as the current one.

Then you have the left. They’ll cry about 'mental health' and 'safe spaces.' They’ll say that the internet is too mean for the poor little kids. They’ll support this ban because they think the government is a giant, warm blanket that should wrap everyone in cotton wool. They don’t care about freedom or personal responsibility. They care about feelings. And they think a law signed by a guy in a five-thousand-dollar suit is going to make kids feel better about themselves. Spoiler alert: It won’t. It will just make them find new ways to hide what they are doing.

The tech companies are the worst of the bunch in this mess. They pretend to care about **online privacy for minors**. They put out these little statements saying they 'look forward to working with the government.' That’s code for 'we are currently hiring a thousand lawyers to find a way around this so we can keep making money off your kid’s attention span.' They are vultures. They built these apps to be addictive on purpose. They know exactly what they are doing. They don’t care if a teenager in Paris is depressed as long as that teenager clicks on an ad for shoes or a bad mobile game.

And what about the kids? Does anyone think a 14-year-old is going to see this ban and say, 'Oh well, I guess I'll go read a dusty book'? Of course not. They’re smarter than Macron. They’re smarter than the tech bros. They’ll use a VPN. They’ll borrow an older friend’s account. They’ll find new, weirder parts of the internet where the government can't see them. By banning the big apps, Macron is just pushing kids into the dark corners of the web where things are actually dangerous. Great job, Emmanuel. You really thought this through with your giant brain.

This whole thing is a distraction. France has real problems. The economy is a mess. People are angry. The streets are often on fire with protests. But instead of fixing the big stuff, Macron wants to talk about Instagram and **TikTok restrictions**. It’s a classic move. When you can’t fix the roof, you start complaining about the color of the curtains. He wants to be seen as the 'Protector of the Youth' on the world stage. He wants other countries to look at him and say, 'Look at how bold he is.' He isn't bold. He’s just bored and out of real solutions.

If Macron really cared about the kids, he’d fix the world they are growing up in. He’d make sure they had a future that wasn't a burning pile of debt and chaos. But that’s hard work. It’s much easier to sign a paper that says 'No TikTok for you.' It’s lazy. It’s cynical. It’s exactly what I expect from a man who thinks the world is his classroom and we are all just naughty students. So, good luck, France. Enjoy your ban. It will just create more liars and more secrets. But hey, at least Macron gets a nice headline. And in the end, isn't that all that matters to these people?

**References & Fact-Check:** - **Authoritative Source:** [ABC News: France's Macron pushes for fast-track ban on social media for children under 15](https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/macron-pushes-fast-track-ban-social-media-children-129536618) - **Context:** The proposal aims to establish a strict 'digital age of consent' to combat cyberbullying and social media addiction in minors. - **Related Trends:** Discussion of EU-wide social media regulations and youth mental health legislation.