Kazakhstan to introduce ban on social media for children under 16 - new details

Tengrinews.kz — Kazakhstan is planning to ban children under 16 from using social media. The proposed regulation is currently under government review, reports our correspondent.
According to Vice Minister of Culture and Information Evgeny Kochetov, a comprehensive package of amendments has already been drafted. Specifically, it includes provisions to restrict children's access to online platforms.

"The regulation stipulates that registration will be restricted for children under 16. The specific mechanisms have not yet been finalized; essentially, we are now intentionally 'planting' this norm into the law. It is being discussed with government agencies. The bill has not yet reached Parliament. As I mentioned, it also includes 'catch-up' regulations regarding the activities of online coaches and psychologists. It is too early to discuss details because we are at the inter-agency coordination stage. It is currently with the government. We will discuss these norms further within the new Parliament and at the Kurultai sessions," Kochetov told reporters on the sidelines of a government meeting.

The Vice Minister described the move to restrict social media as a "trending" measure, noting that one of the first countries to introduce such a ban was Australia.

"A number of European countries are currently considering legislation in this area—five European nations, as I recall. Furthermore, the European Parliament has recommended implementing this into national laws. Therefore, we are firm and confident that this regulation is necessary. It is encouraging that not only Kazakhstan but all leading countries are moving in this direction," added Evgeny Kochetov.

A ban, but not for everyone?
The official emphasized that, for now, Kazakh developers maintain that the social media ban should specifically target children under the age of 16.

"This was our idea. You see, for younger children, various online platforms originally had their own internal filtering algorithms. That is, some measures are already in place for younger age groups. I won't say they work perfectly—there are certainly lapses—but we are specifically talking about children under 16. Another crucial point is that this concerns new registered users—specifically, the registration of new accounts on social media platforms," the Vice Minister explained.

We clarified whether this means that children who already have social media accounts will be able to continue using them.

"We will study this and consider how to regulate it through secondary legislation if the law is passed. There are different approaches; we are observing how other countries coordinate this sphere. For example, the Australian experience perhaps didn't quite achieve its goal because the mechanism our Australian colleagues used did not require personal data. Roughly speaking, documents did not need to be verified during registration. Verification was done via facial recognition to determine if it was indeed a child. This mechanism failed, and children also began using their parents' accounts to go online. Which path will we take? We don't know yet," Kochetov added.

According to him, the issue is still under discussion, with law enforcement practices in other countries being taken into account. The final bill will be reviewed by the new Kazakh Parliament—the Kurultai. As a reminder, elections for this body are scheduled for August of this year.
Context
Discussions regarding social media restrictions for children in Kazakhstan began last year. In December 2025, the Ministry of Culture published a draft law "On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts on Issues of Online Platforms and Mass Media" on the "Open NPA" portal.
The key provision is contained in a new Article 10-1 of the law "On Online Platforms and Online Advertising":

"The registration of users under sixteen years of age on online platforms is prohibited, with the exception of registration for instant messaging services" (Draft Law, Article 11, Paragraph 5 — New Article 10-1).

Thus, it is expected that children under 16 will be prohibited from creating accounts on most platforms, with messengers being the sole exception.