ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish lawmakers passed a bill late Wednesday that includes restricting access to social media platforms for children under 15, state media reported.
The legislation is the latest in a global trend to protect young people from dangerous online activity.
Its passage comes a week after a 14-year-old boy killed nine students and a teacher at a middle school in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey, in a gun attack. Police are investigating the online activity of the perpetrator, who also died, in a bid to uncover his motivation for the attack.
The bill will force social media platforms to install age‑verification systems, provide parental control tools and require companies to rapidly respond to content deemed harmful, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan must now accept the bill within 15 days for it to pass into law. He spoke in the wake of the Kahramanmaras killings of the need for to mitigate the online risks to children’s safety and privacy.
“We are living in a period where some digital sharing applications are corrupting our children's minds and social media platforms have, to put it bluntly, become cesspools,” he said in a televised address Monday.
The main opposition party — the Republican People’s Party, or CHP — has criticized the proposal, saying children should be protected “not with bans but with rights-based policies.”
Under the law, digital platforms — such as YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and others — would have to block children under 15 from opening accounts and introduce parental controls that would manage children’s access.
Online game companies will also be required to appoint a representative in Turkey to ensure they abide by the new regulations. Potential penalties include internet bandwidth reductions and fines imposed by Turkey’s communications watchdog.
The Turkish government has a recent record of restricting online platforms as they have grown as a means of expressing dissent. Online communications were widely restricted during last year’s protests in support of Istanbul’s jailed opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu.
Restrictions on social media access for children under 16 first began in December in Australia, where social media companies revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children.
Last month, Indonesia began implementing a new government regulation banning children younger than 16 from access to digital platforms that could expose them to pornography, cyberbullying, online scams and addiction.
Some other countries — including Spain, France and the United Kingdom — are also taking or considering measures to restrict children’s access to social media amid growing concern that they are being harmed by exposure to unregulated social media content.
A man stands next to the Bosphorus at Kadikoy ferry terminal on a rainy day in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
BELFAST, Northern Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 23, 2026--
Cloudsmith, the universal artifact management platform trusted by some of the world's leading enterprises, today announced a $72M Series C financing led by TCV and with participation from Insight Partners, along with investments from other existing investors. The additional funding positions Cloudsmith for massive growth to power the era of AI-driven software development.
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The additional investment, one year after Cloudsmith’s Series B, follows a period of strong year-over-year growth, as enterprises seek modern infrastructure that keeps pace with the speed and scale of AI-generated software. Increasing numbers of existing customers, including Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies, are replacing legacy tools and upgrading to Cloudsmith's cloud-native platform. At the same time, enterprises that adopt AI-coding agents are turning to Cloudsmith to provide the guardrails and governance their software supply chains require. Cloudsmith will use the funding to accelerate product development and expand its go-to-market capabilities.
"Cloudsmith is the only platform built for the way software is being developed today — by AI agents. We're never going back to hand-crafted software. AI agents generate so much software, so fast, it's nearly impossible for humans to carefully review it all. Cloudsmith has the scale, and the broad view across the open-source ecosystem, to protect enterprises against the new kinds of threats that AI-driven development introduces. TCV and Insight Partners both recognise this profound shift, and their backing is helping Cloudsmith scale up for the massive wave of adoption of AI agents across enterprise software teams," said Glenn Weinstein, CEO of Cloudsmith.
TCV and Insight Partners' decision to reinvest reflects their track record of backing category-defining software infrastructure companies and their conviction in Cloudsmith's leadership, product, and market position.
“Having led Cloudsmith’s Series B and now its Series C, TCV is proud to deepen our partnership with a company we see as defining artifact management for the AI era. As AI shapes the software supply chain, we believe Cloudsmith is uniquely positioned to become a platform enterprises rely on for compliance, control, and security at global scale,” said Morgan Gerlak, Partner at TCV.
“In an era increasingly defined by AI-driven development, securing the software supply chain is critical. As a cloud-native offering, Cloudsmith is well positioned to do this – providing the scale and reliability needed to help power enterprise and AI-driven builds and mitigate emerging risks. We believe in Cloudsmith’s vision to secure the software supply chain by serving as a curated, AI-ready solution for enterprises of all sizes,” said Thomas Krane, Managing Director at Insight Partners.
The investment comes at a defining moment for the artifact management market. The domain has been fundamentally reshaped by AI agentic software development. As AI coding agents generate code at unprecedented velocity and volume, the software artifacts and dependencies they produce introduce an expanding threat surface that is now a board-level concern. Enterprises must manage ever-larger software supply chains, which span open source libraries, internal packages, and third-party dependencies, all while facing growing regulatory pressure to prove that AI-generated software is secure by design.
Cloudsmith is built for this reality. Its platform gives engineering teams the scale and visibility needed to govern every package, at every stage, providing the confidence to move fast without compromising security or control.
About Cloudsmith
Cloudsmith is the artifact management platform built for the age of AI. As AI coding agents transform the pace and scale of software development, Cloudsmith gives engineering teams the infrastructure to manage, secure, and govern every package across every format and environment. Built cloud-native from the ground up, Cloudsmith provides the visibility and supply chain controls that modern enterprises need to ship with confidence. Trusted by engineering teams across the globe. Learn more at cloudsmith.com.
About TCV
TCV is a leading investment firm focused on investing in global, category-defining, technology companies. Leveraging its deep industry expertise and strategic resources, TCV’s mission is to provide long-term capital and support to high-quality management teams across their growth journey. Since its founding in 1995, TCV has invested $22 billion in more than 350 technology companies worldwide and has supported over 150 IPOs and strategic acquisitions, making it one of the most active technology investors. TCV has a global presence in Menlo Park, New York, and London. For more information on TCV and its investments, visit www.tcv.com.
About Insight Partners
Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of June 30, 2025, the firm has over $90B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 875 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has a global presence with leadership in London, Tel Aviv, and the Bay Area. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with tailored, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on X @insightpartners.
Cloudsmith Team
