Kazakhstan's Vice Minister of Culture and Information, Qanat Isqakov, announced plans to restrict access to social media for children under 16, while messengers will remain available, according to infohub.kz.
"We plan, together with our colleagues, to restrict access to social media for children under 16. However, this does not apply to messengers such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and others. They will be used without problems," said Qanat Isqakov.
According to him, the key factor in this matter is user identification.
"This is indeed a very complex process. Therefore, we will work with our friends and colleagues from digital platforms to build a unified age verification algorithm. We believe that the responsibility of parents, of each of us, is important in ensuring that children use a safe digital space. We will work with our entire community to make this effective and not restrict children from accessing educational and other important content," the vice minister assured.
Earlier, it was reported that Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov spoke about the progress of a draft law that could ban children under 16 from using social media.