Istanbul– Turkish lawmakers passed a bill late Wednesday that includes restricting access to social media platforms for children under 15, state media reported.
the law is Latest in global trend To protect youth from dangerous online activity.
Its passage comes a week after a 14-year-old boy Nine students and one teacher murdered A gun attack on a middle school in Kahramanmaraş, southern Turkey. Police are investigating the online activity of the culprit, who has also died, to ascertain his motivation for the attack.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said the bill would force social media platforms to install age-verification systems, provide parental control tools and require companies to respond rapidly to content deemed harmful.
President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan The bill will now have to be accepted within 15 days to be passed into law. He spoke about the need to reduce online risks to children’s safety and privacy in the wake of the Kahramanmaraş murders.
“We are living in an era where certain digital sharing applications are corrupting the minds of our children and social media platforms, to put it bluntly, have become dustbins,” he said in a televised address on Monday.
The main opposition party – the Republican People’s Party, or CHP – has criticized the proposal, saying that children should be protected “not with restrictions but with rights-based policies”.
Under the law, digital platforms – such as YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and others – must prevent children under 15 from opening accounts and implement parental controls that will manage children’s access.
Online game companies will also be required to appoint a representative in Türkiye to ensure compliance with the new rules. Possible penalties include cuts in Internet bandwidth and a fine imposed by Türkiye’s communications watchdog.
The Turkish government has a recent record of restricting online platforms as they have evolved as a means of expressing dissent. Online communication was widely restricted during last year’s protests In support of Istanbul’s jailed opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu.
ban on Access to social media for children under 16 The first began in Australia in December, where social media companies access revoked About 4.7 million accounts have been identified as belonging to children.
Last month, Indonesia began implementing a new government regulation Ban on children under 16 years of age Access to digital platforms that can 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 concerns that exposure to unregulated social media content is harming them.
