Social Media: Illustration by BIRN
The Human Rights Review Commission of the Turkish parliament accepted a report on Tuesday aiming to ban social media usage for youngsters under 15 years of age.
The report, “Threats and Risks Awaiting Our Children in Digital Media”, recommended “restricting internet access for children under 18 during certain hours, and prohibiting social media from providing services until the age of 15”.
“I hope that these evaluations and findings will be useful both in the legislative work we will carry out in the Turkish parliament and in the work of the relevant institutions and organisations,” Derya Yanik, chair of the commission, told the parliamentary meeting on Tuesday.
The report will be the main basis for new laws and regulations on usage of social media by children.
New measures propose to strengthen child protection in the digital environment by mandating effective age verification and content moderation across all digital services, regulating children’s access to devices and connectivity, and preventing the unauthorised sharing of children’s personal images.
They call for a child-centred oversight framework that addresses digital addiction, cyberbullying, exploitation and privacy violations through early intervention, public awareness, parental remedies and specialised child-rights-focused enforcement units at national and international levels.
On the same day, a presidential notice published by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Official Gazette announced new measures on online gaming platforms and minor users.
The new 2026–2030 digital strategy focuses on enhancing online safety and digital skills for children, prioritising protection from risks and supporting digital literacy.
It contains proposals to regulate digital game platforms with age-classification requirements, potential local representation mandates, and stronger oversight.
Children will be required to log in to online gaming platforms with their citizenship information, to stop anonymous entrances, and online gaming paltforms will be obliged to appoint representatives in Turkey to handle the authorities’ demands, such as removing harmful content.
Australia in December 2025 banned youngsters under the age of 16 from creating or maintaining social media accounts. Spain plans a similar law to ban social media for those under 16, despite strong criticism from social media companies. X owner Elon Musk wrote on Tuesday on X in response: “Dirty [PM Pedro] Sanchez is a tyrant and a traitor to the people of Spain.”