Macron urges parents to keep teenagers at home to quell rioting across France

Police investigators examine charred buses after a third night of unrest at a depot in Aubervilliers near Paris (Michel Euler/AP)

Emmanuel Macron is urging parents to keep teenagers at home to quell rioting spreading across France and says social media is fuelling copycat violence.

After a second crisis meeting with senior ministers, the French President said on Friday that social networks are playing a “considerable role” in the spreading unrest triggered by the deadly police shooting of a 17-year-old boy.

He said he wants social media such as Snapchat and TikTok to remove sensitive content and that violence is being organised online.

Of young rioters, he said: “We sometimes have the feeling that some of them are living in the streets the video games that have intoxicated them.”