Turkey Passes Legislation Barring Children Under 15 From Social Media

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Turkey Passes Legislation Barring Children Under 15 From Social Media

The government says the measure, which must be signed into law by the president, will protect minors. Critics worry it will threaten free speech and privacy online.

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Istanbul on Thursday. The government says the new legislation will protect children from virtual dangers including social media addiction, cyberbullying and commercial exploitation.

Credit...

Emrah Gurel/Associated Press

By

Ben Hubbard

and

Safak Timur

Reporting from Istanbul

April 24, 2026,

2:34 p.m. ET

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Turkey this week passed legislation barring children under 15 from social media, joining a small but growing number of nations seeking to protect underage users from the potential harms of the online world.

The legislation, which the Turkish Parliament passed on Wednesday, requires social media companies to ensure they do not provide services to underage users and to offer parental controls for online transactions. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to sign it into law.

Advocates for the law, including Mr. Erdogan and his governing Justice and Development Party, have said the measure aims to protect children from dangers like social media addiction, cyberbullying and exposure to violence, pornography and commercial exploitation.

“We are living in a period where some digital-sharing applications have violated our children’s minds and social media platforms have, to put it bluntly, become cesspools,” Mr. Erdogan said this week, before the vote.

The measure, which will be carried out gradually, does not specify which platforms will be affected or detail how users’ ages will be verified. But Turkish officials have said the login process will require the use of an online portal run by the government.

The additional step has raised concerns among free-speech advocates that the new procedures will threaten online privacy and freedom of expression.

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