What does the new law passed by the Turkish Parliament mean? Maternity leave extended and age limit introduced for social media use

The legislative proposal, which includes maternity leave for female civil servants and a social media ban for those under 15, has been published in the Official Gazette and entered into force after being accepted by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM). The regulations aim to ensure the protection of children in the digital environment and increase various social supports for families.

The post-natal leave period for female civil servants has been increased from eight weeks to 16 weeks. Thus, female civil servants will now be considered on leave for a total of 24 weeks following childbirth. Those whose health condition is suitable will also be able to partially transfer their pre-natal leave to the post-natal period.

The state has also granted new rights to foster families. Civil servants who become foster parents to one or more children will be able to take 10 days of leave from the date the children are handed over to them. In addition, state support will be provided for the premium payments of foster families without social security, and this support will continue even if one of the spouses works less than 30 days a month or passes away.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND GAMING PLATFORMS ARE BROUGHT UNDER SUPERVISION WITH THE NEW REGULATION

Within the scope of the changes made regarding social media, it is now legally prohibited for social media platforms to provide services to children who have not reached the age of 15: Platforms will both perform age verification and mandatorily provide parental control tools. Accordingly, options such as account settings offered by platforms, parental approval for paid transactions, and usage time limitations will be mandatory. Additionally, additional measures are being implemented to prevent misleading advertisements.

YouTube Turkey, with these new rules, signaled that accounts of users under 15 could be closed. With the law, new obligations have also been introduced regarding gaming platforms: Attention will be paid to the age rating of games, and platforms with at least 100 thousand accesses from abroad have been required to have a representative in Turkey.

Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş thanked the deputies who contributed after the accepted regulations and stated, "I wish our regulations, which will carry our ideal of a great and strong Turkey to a new level in the Family and Population Decade, to be beneficial to our country and our nation."

Some innovations have also been made in social and economic support regarding the new law. Aid aimed at supporting children alongside their families or relatives will now be limited to the civil servant salary, and the duration and amounts of the support will be determined according to the child's age and education. In addition, support will be provided to young people continuing their university education until the age of 25.

In addition to this, social network providers with daily access exceeding 10 million from Turkey have been required to implement legal decisions without delay. In case these obligations are not met, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) will be able to impose advertising bans, implement bandwidth throttling, and in the most severe cases, severely restrict the access of these platforms in Turkey.

News Source: 12punto