Kazakhstan is preparing amendments to its media legislation that would ban social media registration for users under 16, strengthen regulation of online platforms, and revise advertising rules, as part of reforms ordered by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the V National Kurultai, officials said.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture and Information Aida Balayeva told a government meeting that draft laws regulating online platforms and mass media have passed expert review and been opened for public discussion. The proposed changes aim to limit children’s and adolescents’ access to social networks and tighten oversight of the rapidly expanding digital media environment.
To enforce age restrictions, the Culture and Information Ministry plans to work with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development to introduce user age-verification mechanisms, with possible liability measures for violations.
Balayeva said the reform package also prioritizes media literacy and support for independent outlets, including through a sectoral journalism development commission. Authorities are additionally reviewing rules on advertising revenue distribution between online platforms and media, as well as the potential partial removal of bans on advertising certain goods.
The media reforms come as Kazakhstan advances a broader constitutional transformation, which President Tokayev has described as a systemic overhaul of the country’s political model. The planned changes include reviving the vice president post and reshaping parliamentary governance as part of a wider reconfiguration of state institutions.
At the same time, Kazakhstan is also investing in digital and linguistic sovereignty. Recently, Kazakhstan-based Cybernet AI unveiled the largest automatic speech recognition model for Turkic languages, marking a first for Central Asia and strengthening the technological foundation for content moderation, media monitoring, and language-based regulation in the digital space.
