Türkiye's Grand National Assembly has approved wide-ranging amendments to the Child Protection Law, rewriting sentencing rules for minors, creating new "guidance measures" for children who are not criminally responsible, and toughening penalties for adults who fail in family law obligations. The General Assembly debated the legislative proposal under the leadership of Deputy Speaker Tekin Bingöl before passing the reform package.

The legislation reshapes criminal liability across the two juvenile age bands.

Children aged 12 to 15. Those unable to understand the legal consequences of their actions or to control their behavior will face no criminal liability. Instead, child-specific protective measures will apply. Where a child in this band has sufficient capacity, sentences will generally be reduced by half, with a maximum of nine years per offense. Judges also gain discretion to apply the next age group's sentencing regime to some 12- to 15-year-olds.

Children aged 15 to 18. Sentences will generally be reduced by one-third, with a maximum of 15 years per offense. Courts may withhold the age-based reduction in particularly serious cases of intentional homicide or aggravated intentional injury. In making that determination, judges will weigh intent, motive, the manner of the crime and previous convictions.

For adults, the law introduces one to three years in prison for anyone whose negligent storage of a firearm allows a child to gain access to it, unless the act constitutes a more serious offense.

The package also creates a new category of "guidance measures" for children who bear no criminal responsibility. The measures include community service, protection from digital risks, reading and library programs, environmental activities, and rehabilitation for substance or behavioral addictions. Some activities may involve 20 to 300 hours of supervised participation. Digital restrictions may remain in place for up to two years.

In a terminological shift with practical implications for court records, the phrase "children pushed into crime" will be replaced in relevant legislation with "children in legal proceedings," a change the reform frames as emphasizing a child-protection approach.

The custodial regime changes as well. Children sentenced to prison will generally begin their terms in juvenile closed correctional institutions and may later transfer to juvenile education centers following assessments of good conduct. Children aged 12 to 18 will be separated according to gender, physical development and offense type. Those sentenced to three years or less for intentional offenses, or five years or less for negligent offenses, will serve their sentences directly in education centers.

Penalties for violating family law obligations will increase. Failure to provide required care, education or support will carry three months to two years in prison. Abandoning a pregnant spouse or partner will carry six months to two years. Parents who seriously endanger their children through habitual drunkenness, substance use or degrading conduct will face one to three years.

The law further establishes expedited procedures for children considered a serious danger to themselves or others because of mental or behavioral conditions, substance dependence or serious infectious diseases. Those procedures require medical and judicial assessments within specified deadlines.

One provision carries a distinct commencement date. The ban on the sale, purchase or carrying by minors of certain knives and other cutting or piercing implements takes effect on Dec. 1, with violations punishable by fines of up to 10,000 Turkish Liras ($210).

For practitioners, the reform demands immediate recalibration. Defense counsel and prosecutors handling juvenile cases must now assess capacity findings for 12- to 15-year-olds at the outset, since that determination decides whether protective measures or the halved-sentence regime applies. The nine-year and 15-year per-offense caps, the judicial discretion to move younger defendants into the older band, and the possible withholding of reductions in homicide cases will all shape plea strategy and sentencing submissions. Family law practitioners face steeper exposure for clients accused of neglecting care obligations, and firearms owners now face criminal liability for negligent storage that reaches a child's hands.