Turkish first lady Emine Erdoğan highlighted child safety in the digital environment, the Zero Waste Movement and climate action during her engagements on the sidelines of the 81st U.N. General Assembly in New York, where she also met with spouses of world leaders.
At the “Invisible Architecture: Building Safe Digital Systems for Children – Advancing International Standards and Shared Responsibility” event held Monday, Erdoğan called for common global standards to protect children from digital risks, stressing that child safety is a shared responsibility that must be embedded into digital systems from the design stage.
“Protecting children is not only the responsibility of parents, but of all of us,” Erdoğan said.
“We must build a healthy digital ecosystem and ensure that safety is not a feature added to digital systems later, but the starting point of their design,” she said.
Erdoğan urged countries to develop common standards under the U.N. framework, warning that differing national regulations make it difficult to establish consistent protections against global technology companies.
She called for regular monitoring and reporting mechanisms and stronger accountability for technology companies and digital platforms in protecting children.
“Rather than differing national practices, we should develop common global standards,” Erdoğan said.
Children targeted online
Erdoğan warned that children are increasingly being treated as targets by digital platforms designed to capture their attention, with commercial interests potentially taking precedence over their well-being.
“Unfortunately, today children have been turned into a target audience whose minds and attention are being watched and who have been reduced to user profiles,” she said.
She pointed to growing research on the effects of screen exposure on children, including addiction-related behavior and biological effects, while stressing that the aim was not to portray technology as an overall threat.
Erdoğan said parental controls, digital literacy and limiting screen time alone were insufficient to address the risks posed by digital platforms.
“We cannot reduce limiting screen time to a simple matter of willpower,” she said, stressing that child safety requires shared responsibility among families, governments and technology companies.
“Technology should not become an undefined, unlimited and unfiltered space full of invisible traps that is alien to humanity’s values,” she said.
Erdoğan noted that Türkiye and several other countries had already introduced measures to protect children online, but said differing national regulations made common international standards necessary.
She called for U.N.-backed global standards, regular monitoring and stronger accountability for technology companies and digital platforms in protecting children.
Greener consumption habits
At a separate event marking the opening of New York Climate Week, Erdoğan, who chairs the U.N. High-Level Advisory Board on Zero Waste, called for a shift in global consumption habits to address the climate crisis.
“The Zero Waste movement has transformed individuals from helpless observers in the face of the climate crisis into leading actors in the solution,” Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan said climate change reflects not only the impact of fossil fuels and industrial emissions but also a global consumption model that drives continued production and waste.
“We must therefore begin by reducing excess in our habits alongside our waste, changing our mindset alongside our systems, and rebuilding our relationship with nature on the principles of balance and justice,” she said.
She pointed to the approximately 9.2 billion tons of plastic produced globally since the 1950s, of which around 7 billion tons have become waste, saying the environmental burden is not distributed equally.
Erdoğan said Zero Waste practices launched at the Turkish Presidential Complex in 2017 later spread to schools, hospitals, municipalities, public institutions and households, while Türkiye’s waste recovery rate rose from 13% to more than 37%.
She stressed that zero waste also requires action from governments and companies, including infrastructure that enables sustainable choices, durable and reusable products, circular technologies and international cooperation.
She recalled that a Zero Waste resolution submitted by Türkiye to the U.N. General Assembly in 2022 was adopted with broad support and that March 30 was later designated as International Zero Waste Day.
Erdoğan said the zero waste approach should become a stronger part of climate action at COP31, which Türkiye will host in November.
“One thing is certain: As long as we continue the habits that produce today’s problems while discussing the solutions of the future, no target will be sufficient on its own, and no technology will be a solution on its own,” she said.
Erdoğan also held bilateral meetings with the spouses of the presidents of Brazil and Sierra Leone at the Turkish House (Türkevi). With Brazilian first lady Rosangela Lula da Silva, she discussed environmental challenges, climate action and preparations for COP31, while her meeting with Sierra Leonean first lady Fatima Maada Bio focused on the environment, education and the welfare of women and children.
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