Turkiye’s parliament votes to lock kids under 15 out of social media

Ankara’s new bill goes beyond screen time as it forces platforms to prove every user’s age and puts e-government ID checks on the table.

By E. Redwood

2026-04-23

Turkiye’s Grand National Assembly passed sweeping child-safety amendments late April 23 that would block anyone under 15 from opening a social media account and force platforms to install age checks and parental controls. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan now has 15 days to sign the bill, which the government fast-tracked after a 14-year-old killed nine classmates and a teacher in Kahramanmaras last week. (Al Jazeera, 2026-04-23)

What the bill mandates

Zero access for under-15s: Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, and Twitch must block children younger than 15 from registering, and keep logs demonstrating the filters are active. (Al Jazeera, 2026-04-23)
Parental controls & rapid takedowns: Companies have to provide parent-facing dashboards, respond quickly to content flagged as harmful, and push differentiated experiences for teens 15–17. (Al Jazeera, 2026-04-23)
Local accountability: Online gaming firms must appoint an on-shore representative to liaise with regulators. Violators face bandwidth throttling and hefty fines from the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK). (Al Jazeera, 2026-04-23)

Ankara’s identity-check push goes further

Justice Minister Akin Gürlek told MPs a separate bill is being drafted to require e-government logins for all social media accounts. This means platforms would have to verify every user’s ID number and age through Turkiye’s centralized digital ID system. (Balkan Insight, 2026-04-23)
Gürlek said Ankara already reached a “principled agreement” with major platforms earlier this month to prepare for identity verification, signaling the government wants the same tools that Australian and Indonesian regulators recently deployed. (Balkan Insight, 2026-04-23)
The youth-focused bill emerged from a parliamentary report titled “Threats and Risks Awaiting Our Children in Digital Media,” which urges mandatory parental controls, addiction interventions, and a child-rights enforcement unit. (Balkan Insight, 2026-04-23)

Critics warn of deeper speech controls

Erdogan argued Monday that “social media platforms have become cesspools” corrupting children’s minds, framing the ban as a safety measure in the wake of the Kahramanmaras tragedy. (Al Jazeera, 2026-04-23)
The opposition CHP counters that “children should be protected not with bans but with rights-based policies,” and digital rights groups say stripping anonymity via e-government logins could chill dissent, especially after authorities throttled social apps during protests for Istanbul’s jailed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu last year. (Al Jazeera & Balkan Insight, 2026-04-23)
Enforcement details remain vague: Ankara has not explained how it will verify ages for VPN users, or whether penalties will target app stores, ISPs, or individual platforms first.

A global race to police youth feeds

Australia forced platforms to delete 4.7 million underage accounts after adopting similar rules in 2025, and Indonesia recently banned under-16s from high-risk apps tied to pornography, cyberbullying, and scams. (Al Jazeera, 2026-04-23)
The UK opened a January consultation after sending ministers to Canberra to study Australia’s under-16 ban, exploring higher digital ages of consent, phone curfews, and bans on addictive design features such as streaks and infinite scroll. (Al Jazeera, 2026-01-20)
Spain, France, and other EU governments are likewise drafting tougher safeguards, so Ankara will face immediate peer pressure to prove its child-safety rules don’t simply become another speech-control tool.

What to watch next

Erdogan’s signature: If he signs within 15 days, the ICTA could begin issuing compliance orders before the summer holiday season.
Platform compliance plans: Meta, Google, TikTok, and game publishers must detail how they will integrate e-government checks and parental tools in Turkish-language interfaces.
Legal challenges: Expect CHP lawmakers and digital rights lawyers to test the law at the Constitutional Court or the European Court of Human Rights if enforcement sweeps up older teens, activists, or VPN users.

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