Turkey Bans Social Media Access for Individuals Under 15

On Wednesday, lawmakers in Turkey passed legislation that bans individuals who are less than 15 years of age from accessing social media. The bill now awaits the signature of the country’s president before it can become law.

Barely a week ago, a boy aged 14 carried out a gun attack, killing a teacher and nine students at the middle school he targeted in southern Turkey. That attack happened while the bill was being debated and may have accelerated its passage since the attacker’s social media activity is being investigated as the police look into the motive behind the attack.

Under the bill, social media platforms are required to create tools to enable parental control, install systems for age verification, and compel firms to respond rapidly when alerted about content that is regarded as harmful. Platforms shouldn’t allow minors to sign up.

This bill was tabled by the party headed by the president, and it is widely believed that he will sign it into law within the 15-day window permitted for laws to be enacted in the country. President Recep T. Erdogan referred to social media platforms as “cesspools” while speaking after the school attack in which ten people died. He said social media is corrupting the youth and online risks need to be mitigated, especially for the youth and children.

The bill also requires online gaming firms to appoint a representative within the country to ensure that the companies’ activities comply with the laws of Turkey. For platforms that fail to abide by these new rules, the country’s communications regulator could impose hefty fines and trigger a reduction of the internet bandwidth allocated to the non-compliant company.

Not every lawmaker supported this legislation. For example, the CHP, which is the leading opposition party in the country, opposed the bill, saying policies based on children’s rights were a better way to protect kids rather than resorting to outright bans.

Turkey’s action comes in the wake of Australia passing the first such law banning access to social media by minors. Several other countries in Europe and elsewhere are considering similar measures.

This trend is likely to cause concern to companies like Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) that operate social media platforms with billions of users around the world. As more countries enact their own bans, platforms could be compelled to institute features that comply with the specific regulations in those different countries, and that could introduce operational complexities for the tech giants.

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