Overview
- Turkey’s parliament has passed a bill that would bar platforms from offering services to users under 15 and would take effect six months after it is signed by President Erdoğan.
- The draft requires platforms with large Turkish traffic to verify ages using state infrastructure, implement parental‑control options and act on some official orders within one hour, with fines and slowed data delivery for noncompliance.
- Critics, including opposition parties and digital rights activists, warn that verifying identities through the government e‑Devlet system risks creating a permanent digital‑identity and surveillance layer that could chill anonymous political speech.
- Research from Australia, which implemented an under‑16 ban in December 2025, shows that stronger enforcement can cut young people’s news consumption and reduce their participation in public debate, raising concerns about civic exclusion.
- Germany remains divided on legal bans: Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt called statutory bans hard to enforce and urged parental responsibility, Chancellor Friedrich Merz has backed a 14‑year limit, and an expert commission will deliver recommendations this summer.