Turkiye’s parliament debates a bill to restrict access to social media for children under 15

A car passes Facebook's new Meta logo on a sign at the company headquarters on Oct. 28, 2021, in Menlo Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File)

ISTANBUL — Turkish lawmakers kicked off a debate Tuesday on a draft law package that includes restricting access to social media platforms for children under 15, making Turkiye the latest country to seek measures to protect young people from dangerous online activity.

If it becomes law, the bill would force social media platforms to install age‑verification systems, provide parental control tools and require companies to rapidly respond to content deemed harmful. It’s unclear how long the parliament debate will last.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ’s government says the proposal aims to mitigate the online risks to children’s safety and privacy.

“Protecting our children from all kinds of risks, threats and harmful content is our top priority,” Mahinur Ozdemir Goktas, Turkiye’s minister for family and social services, said earlier this year.

The main opposition party — Republican People’s Party or CHP — has criticized the proposal, saying children should be protected “not with bans but with rights-based policies.”

Under the draft proposal, digital platforms — such as YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and others — would have to block children under 15 from opening accounts and introduce parental controls that would manage children’s access.

Online game companies will also be required to appoint a representative in Turkiye to ensure they abide by the new regulations. Potential penalties include internet bandwidth reductions and fines imposed by Turkiye’s communications watchdog.

The Turkish government has a recent record of restricting online platforms as they have grown as a means of expressing dissent. Online communications were widely restricted during last year’s protests in support of Istanbul’s jailed opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu.

Restrictions on social media access for children under 16 first began in December in Australia, where social media companies revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children.

Last month, Indonesia began implementing a new government regulation banning children younger than 16 from access to digital platforms that could expose them to pornography, cyberbullying, online scams and addiction.

Some other countries — including Spain, France and the United Kingdom — are also taking or considering measures to restrict children’s access to social media amid growing concern that they are being harmed by exposure to unregulated social media content.

The Associated Press