Turkiye MPs pass bill to restrict social media use for children under 15 

Turkish MPs have passed a bill that includes restricting access to social media platforms for children under 15, according to state media.

The legislation is the latest in a global trend aimed at protecting young people from dangerous online activity, following in the footsteps of Australia, which introduced landmark restrictions on social media use last year.

The bill’s adoption in Turkiye comes a week after a 14-year-old boy killed nine students and a teacher in a gun attack at a middle school in Kahramanmaras in southern Turkiye.

Police are investigating the online activity of the perpetrator, who also died, in a bid to uncover his motivation for the attack.

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, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan now has 15 days to approve the bill for it to become law. He spoke in the wake of the Kahramanmaras killings of the need to mitigate the online risks to children’s safety and privacy.

“We are living in a period where some digital sharing applications are corrupting our children’s minds, and social media platforms have, to put it bluntly, become cesspools,” he said in a televised address on Monday.

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

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

Online gaming 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 been criticised by the opposition for restricting online platforms when used 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.

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.