Turkey passes law to protect children from social media networks
A parliamentary committee in Turkey, by releasing a comprehensive report, has called for extensive and strict regulations to limit children and adolescents’ access to social media. According to the report published in recent days, measures such as mandatory age verification and content filtering are on the agenda. This move places Turkey among countries implementing stricter control policies for adolescents’ presence in the digital space.
Turkey’s Justice and Development Party, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is expected to submit the relevant draft law to parliament soon. Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş, Turkey’s Minister of Family and Social Services, confirmed last month following a cabinet meeting that the bill is being prepared and will include a ban on social media use for underage individuals and obligate service providers to establish content filtering systems.
The broad range of recommendations in the parliamentary report, in addition to the above, includes the removal of harmful content without prior warning, as well as monitoring children’s computer games and AI-equipped toys for harmful content. The report specifically recommends implementing nighttime internet access restrictions on devices of individuals under 18, mandatory content filtering on social media for users under 18, and complete blocking of these platforms for users under 16.
Harun Mertoğlu, a senior lawmaker of the Justice and Development Party and a member of the Turkish Parliamentary Human Rights Inquiry Committee, explaining the necessity of this law, stated: “We must protect our children from moral erosion. Our aim is to protect children from all kinds of addiction, including digital addiction.”
This comes as Turkey has consistently implemented strict laws for social media and acts swiftly in content removal or blocking access to platforms. Official statistics show that the country had blocked access to over 1.2 million web pages and social media posts by the end of 2024.
