Azerbaijan's parliament is considering legislation that would bar children under 16 from creating accounts on social media platforms, triggering a debate over child protection, free expression and the practical enforceability of the rules against global technology companies.

The draft amendments to the Law on Information, Informatisation and Protection of Information were discussed at a joint session of the National Assembly's committees on human rights, family, women and children's affairs and on legal policy and state building on June 8. The bill was drawn up following a decree signed by President Ilham Aliyev on February 27 ordering the Cabinet of Ministers to prepare relevant legislation within three months, taking into account international experience.

Under the proposals, children under 16 would be prohibited from opening personal digital accounts on social media platforms subject to age restrictions. Teenagers aged 16 to 18 would be permitted to register but only with the explicit consent of a legal guardian. The list of platforms covered by the restrictions would be determined by a body designated by the relevant executive authority. Providers would also be required to submit annual reports to state bodies by January 15 each year.

The bill targets what it describes as manipulative design techniques. Zahid Oruj, chairman of the human rights committee, said that for 16-to-18-year-olds, features such as infinite scroll and autoplay video would be prohibited on their accounts, and that the content and advertising visible to them, as well as their hours of platform use, would be managed by their legal guardian.

"Technological companies face a very strong requirement: if you want to do business in Azerbaijan, you do not have the right to exploit the psychology of our children," he told the committee session. He added that personal data collected for age verification purposes, including bank card, email and mobile number information, would be barred from transfer to third parties or commercial use.

Fines for non-compliance range from AZN6,000 to AZN9,000 (approximately $3,500 to $5,300) for officials and from AZN15,000 to AZN40,000 (approximately $8,800 to $23,500) for legal entities, depending on the nature of the violation. Failure to respond to a state body's request within five working days carries fines of AZN7,000 to AZN8,000 for officials and AZN25,000 to AZN30,000 for legal entities. Violations of age restriction rules specifically attract the heaviest penalties, with legal entities facing fines of AZN35,000 to AZN40,000. The bill also provides for traffic throttling and advertising bans for non-compliant platforms.

Deputy Minister of Education and Science Firudin Gurbanov told the committee that the ministry had already begun applying some restrictions in schools, blocking access to TikTok and filtering LinkedIn, with more than 200 categories of harmful content including terrorism, pornography and drug use subject to controls.

Lawmaker Jayhun Mammadov, a member of the National Assembly's science and education committee, said the question of social media's effect on young people was among the most seriously debated in the world and that regulation was unavoidable. Psychologist Gulnar Orujova said age limits for phone use were necessary, warning that parental habits of using phones to occupy children during mealtimes were contributing to obesity in younger generations. She also expressed scepticism about enforcement, saying some parents were likely to open accounts in their own names and hand them to their children.

Legal experts have raised concerns about both the substance and the enforceability of the proposals. Lawyer Atakhan Abilov told Abzas Media that banning under-16s from social media could give rise to legal disputes on grounds of freedom of expression and the right to access information. He noted that Article 47 of Azerbaijan's constitution guarantees freedom of thought and speech to everyone, and that Article 50 extends this to the free dissemination of information. He also cited Article 19 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, both of which guarantee freedom of expression without specifying an age limit.

Abilov acknowledged that the European Court of Human Rights does not treat internet access as an absolute right and that states may impose restrictions provided they are lawful, pursue a legitimate aim and are necessary and proportionate in a democratic society. He cited the Court's rulings in Ahmet Yıldırım v. Turkey and Cengiz and Others v. Turkey as establishing that digital platforms are now primary means of exercising freedom of expression. He said that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, in Articles 13 and 17, also recognises children's rights to freedom of expression and access to information, with the caveat that the manner of exercising those rights may be regulated in accordance with the child's developing capacities.

On the parental consent requirement for 16-to-18-year-olds, Abilov said a balance was needed between child protection and young people's rights to privacy, expression and growing autonomy, noting that international human rights standards recognise teenagers in this age bracket as already possessing a degree of legal and social maturity. He said making their social media use entirely dependent on parental will could be seen as disproportionate interference with their rights.

He also raised concerns about data security. Age verification would require the collection of sensitive personal data including identity documents and biometric information, and he said the bill did not appear to contain sufficiently clear guarantees regarding data minimisation, storage periods, third-party transfers or independent oversight. "The basic principle in international practice, particularly in the European Union, when discussing age verification systems is data minimisation. The platform should know not who the person is but only whether they have passed a certain age threshold," he said.

On fines, Abilov noted that the maximum penalty of AZN50,000 would not represent a meaningful financial loss for companies such as Meta or TikTok, though it could carry reputational significance by reinforcing an image of "violating children's rights" or "non-compliance with laws" internationally. He said the practical impact of any sanctions would depend on the degree to which platforms had a legal presence in Azerbaijan and on the scope for international legal cooperation.

Azerbaijan's proposed legislation follows similar moves elsewhere. Australia enacted a law in December 2024 banning children under 16 from creating social media accounts, with enforcement beginning in December 2025, making it among the first countries to adopt such a measure at national scale. The UK government has also said it will examine whether a similar ban would be effective. Some experts in Azerbaijan have warned that in countries where fundamental freedoms are insufficiently protected, such mechanisms could serve as an additional tool of control over freedom of expression, rather than solely as a means of protecting children. Officials have maintained that the sole purpose of the changes is to protect children from harmful content and negative psychological influences in the digital environment.