AzerbaijanLaw amending the Code of Administrative Offences and the Laws "On Information, Informatization and Protection of Information" and "On Protection of Children from Harmful Information" (age-restricted social network platforms)
Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan of amending the Code of Administrative Offences the Law "On Information, Informatization and Protection of Information" (new Articles 13-4 and 13-5) and the Law "On Protection of Children from Harmful Information" (new Article 10.4)
A social media and minors rule binding private bodies.
- Enforcement body
- A body (qurum) designated by the relevant executive authority; the Law does not name it.
As of .
What it requires
- Applies to the provider of an age-restricted social network platform on the list the designated authority sets, whether a legal or natural person, offering services to users in Azerbaijan.
- Do not allow a person who has not completed 16 years of age to create an individual digital account on the platform.
- At account creation apply, in sequence, a declaration of age and a check of that declared age by a request to the user's e-mail address and mobile number and a refundable bank-card debit; for a user aged 16 to 18 the same data is taken from the legal representative to obtain consent.
- Give a legal representative control over the content, advertising and hours of use on the account of a user aged 16 to 18, and provide the functionality that makes that control possible.
- Re-check age when there is reasonable doubt about the declared age, and restrict access to the account immediately when a breach of the age rule is found.
- Do not store the personal data collected to verify age, pass it to third parties or use it for commercial or targeted advertising, and delete it as soon as the verification ends.
- Apply digital solutions that run continuously and intervene within 24 hours of finding content harmful to users aged 16 to 18.
- Report to the designated authority by 15 January each year on compliance with the account-data deletion and safety requirements and on refused account creations.
- Register in Azerbaijan, through a branch or representative office in the case of a foreign legal person, and keep a contact center that accepts requests in the state language.
- Answer the designated authority's requests about these requirements within 5 working days.
- Before the Law enters into force, provide the technical capacity to determine age and inform the designated authority; after it enters into force, restrict access to existing accounts of children under 16 and delete those accounts and their data unless proof of age 16 is provided.
- The Law enters into force twelve months after the day it is published, so none of these duties binds a provider yet.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
What it reaches
Age threshold
16
Covered services
Age-restricted social network platforms: information systems that let users create an individual digital account, connect with other users and share digital content publicly, excluding systems used for education, health care or professional and business relations, and that the designated authority lists; the duties fall on the provider, a legal or natural person that controls the platform's infrastructure, rules, content-sharing algorithms and data processing.
Verification methods
Self declaration, Transactional data, Parental consent
What this law does
The Law bars persons who have not completed 16 years of age from creating an individual digital account on a social network platform that the designated authority lists. The provider must verify a declared age through a request to the user's e-mail address and mobile number and a refundable bank-card debit. The account of a user aged 16 to 18 is managed by a legal representative as to content, advertising and hours of use.
The provider may not keep, pass on or reuse the personal data collected to verify age, and must delete it as soon as the check ends. The Code of Administrative Offences gains Article 388-4, which fines a legal entity 35,000 to 40,000 manat for breaching the safe-use requirements for these platforms, including failing to apply the age-verification methods. The Law enters into force twelve months after the day it is published.
Until the Law enters into force, providers must prepare the technical capacity to determine age and inform the designated authority.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app operates a social platform.