A safer digital world has been on the agenda of the Turkish government for some time. Now, lawmakers seek to make it real through a string of measures. A draft bill, which will be opened for debate at Parliament in the coming days, proposes limiting access to social media for people below the age of 15, requiring parental control tools for digital platforms and introducing an age verification system.
A report by the Sabah newspaper says the regulations would bring extra responsibilities to social media platforms, such as tools to ensure parental control, a 48-hour timeframe to respond to complaints regarding the social media content and additional security measures to prevent deceptive advertising.
Digital gaming platforms will also be mandated to rate the games based on age criteria and unrated games will be banned. Gaming distributors based in another country and with a certain level of access from Türkiye will be required to appoint a representative in Türkiye. Those violating the new rules will be handed down administrative fines and face bandwidth reduction.
If the bill passes, Türkiye will join a growing number of countries seeking to restrict social media for children. Australia in December became the world’s first country to ban social media for children under 16, blocking them from platforms including TikTok, Alphabet's YouTube and Meta's Instagram and Facebook. Portugal's Parliament last Thursday approved a bill, on its first reading, requiring explicit parental consent for children aged 13 to 16 to access social media, in one of the first concrete legislative moves in Europe to impose such restrictions. France's lower house last month backed legislation to ban children under 15 from social media amid growing concerns about online bullying and mental health risks.
The draft bill’s part on social media restrictions for those under 15 is based on scientific studies, limits in the Turkish Penal Code on criminal liability, regulations in the Turkish Civil Code and practices in European countries.
On age verification, it suggests several methods, including facial recognition systems, algorithms predicting age through online activities of users and other ID verification systems.
As part of the effort, consultations were held with the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of National Education, academics, civil society organizations, social media platforms, as well as parents and children.
The new regulation is intended to create a safer environment in digital spaces in line with the principle of the best interests of the child. Officials say existing legislation has failed to keep pace with the rapidly evolving digital world. They note that technological transformation has left children more vulnerable online and stress the need for a proactive and comprehensive legal framework to address risks that could negatively affect their physical, psychological and social development.
On the Turkish social media platform Nsosyal on Sunday, Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş said the government is close to putting the measures into effect, citing growing concerns about the impact of constant digital stimulation on children.
"Just like many countries around the world, we are very close to implementing social media regulations aimed at protecting our children," she said.
Göktaş warned that people's attention spans have dropped to about eight seconds, a trend she said harms children more than adults.
She added that children's attention spans have declined by at least 30% over the past decade, impacting their concentration, friendships and academic performance.
These changes have also made teaching more difficult, she said, adding that similar social media rules for children are being debated or introduced in countries around the world.
She said Türkiye is working to create a safer internet environment for children, calling on parents and teachers to support the effort. "Together, we can make a safe internet possible for our children," she added.
