French President Emmanuel Macron declared that artificial intelligence must be banned wherever it poses a risk to children, targeting threats to their mental health and cognitive development.
Existing European regulations already provide certain boundaries, such as the AI Act enacted in February 2025, which bans putting on the market any artificial intelligence capable of exploiting a person’s vulnerability due to age if it alters behavior to cause significant harm. Violators face fines of 35 million euros or 7% of global annual turnover. Meanwhile, domestic proposals face procedural steps through Brussels, and the European Commission has asked member states to wait at least one year before implementing national bans to allow common rules to take shape.
Under the proposed EU Kids Act, security-by-design principles would extend to social networks, online games, and chatbots for all minors up to 18 years old, eliminating features like infinite scrolling and engagement badges designed to retain young users. In France, the Constitutional Council previously struck down a ban on social networks for those under 15, ruling it a disproportionate restriction on minor freedom of expression.
An expert committee delivers protection recommendations to the president, paving the way for a charte commitment from research laboratories. Participating developers agree to independent evaluations of generative systems and model data access intended to inform national and European legislative debates, with backing from OpenAI and Anthropic, according to the Elysee.
Participants included British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch, and Microsoft President Brad Smith.
During these discussions, leaders also reviewed existing guardrails such as the AI Act designed to protect society against emerging technological threats.
