Turkey on Saturday formally declared a ban on the use of social media by children under 15, scheduled to take effect on November 1, joining a growing number of countries legislating to protect children and teenagers from the harmful effects of online platforms. The decision was published in the official state journal following the adoption of a law by parliament on April 22. That vote came about a week after a 14-year-old opened fire at a secondary school in the southern province of Kahramanmaras, killing nine pupils and a teacher, according to the Associated Press. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded in a televised address by saying digital sharing applications were corrupting children’s minds and describing social media platforms as cesspools, while police said they were examining the attacker’s online activity to determine his motives.
Under the law, social media providers must take the necessary technical and administrative measures, including age verification, to keep under-15s off their services, and must publish details of those measures on their websites. Platforms are required to design their services specifically for users over 15, and the text states that no service likely to produce an addictive effect in children may be offered. Major platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram must block account creation by under-15s and provide parental control tools, and they are expected to respond quickly to content deemed harmful, with Turkish broadcaster NTV reporting that platforms will have to intervene within an hour when alerted to an emergency. Online game companies must appoint a representative in Turkey, and potential penalties include fines and internet bandwidth reductions imposed by the communications watchdog.
Turkey’s move fits a pattern spreading across the world. Australia began restricting social media for under-16s in December, and companies there revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children. Greece has said it will ban social media for under-15s, France is pushing a similar measure through its parliament alongside partners such as Denmark and Spain, Austria has introduced legislation of its own, and the United Kingdom is moving in the same direction, while the European Union has convened an expert group to prepare recommendations for action across the bloc. Supporters of these laws cite screen addiction, lack of sleep, bullying, and eating disorders as the digital risks they are meant to address, and Turkey’s version adds an explicit ban on addictive design to that list of concerns.
Turkey’s version has also drawn extra scrutiny, because rights groups have complained of restrictions on freedom of expression in the country targeting LGBTQ communities, the media, and the political opposition, and numerous social media accounts have been blocked in recent weeks. Critics worry the new rules could threaten free speech and privacy online, particularly if age verification requires platforms to collect more personal data from users of every age. Those concerns sit alongside the government’s argument that the measure is about protecting minors, and they will shape how the law is judged once it takes effect. Whether Turkey can make age verification work at scale, and whether enforcement tools such as bandwidth throttling stay focused on child protection rather than wider control of online speech, will determine how closely other governments follow its model.
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