Turkey’s government is intensifying a campaign presented as protecting children and families. Yet newly reported figures expose a stark contradiction: while authorities pursue LGBTQI+ organisations and restrict critical voices, hundreds of thousands of teenagers are working, and millions of children live in poverty.
A DİSK-AR research report, covered by bianet on September 14, found that the number of employed children aged 15–17 rose from 520,000 in 2021 to 882,000 in 2025—an increase of 69.6 percent. The population of this age group grew by just 4.2 percent, while the proportion working climbed from 14 percent to 22.8 percent.
The findings place economic insecurity at the centre of the debate. Drawing on official statistics, the report says 6.7 million children experienced income poverty in 2025. School enrolment among 14–17-year-olds fell from 94.5 percent in 2022–2023 to 86.4 percent in 2024–2025. DİSK-AR links child labour to low adult wages, insecure employment and inadequate social protection.
The human cost extends beyond lost schooling. Citing the Health and Safety Labour Watch, the report records at least 646 children killed while working between 2017 and July 2026. It also warns that vocational training arrangements can leave young people engaged in production without adequate protections.
These findings arrive as the state expands its “Ailem Güvende”—“My Family Is Safe”—campaign. As The Levant Files reported, a Justice Ministry directive instructed prosecutors across Turkey’s 81 provinces to investigate activities authorities associate with threats to young people and public morality. The campaign has targeted LGBTQI+ organisations, activists, venues and online platforms.
Our coverage also documented access restrictions targeting accounts associated with Evrensel, Amnesty International Turkey, the Media and Law Studies Association and Academics for Peace. The widening scope connects pressure on sexual minorities with restrictions affecting independent journalism and opposition-oriented civil society. Authorities present these measures as protective; their consequences extend across public debate.
This juxtaposition supports a political interpretation, although it does not establish a coordinated effort to conceal child poverty. By defining danger through sexuality, gender and allegedly immoral content, the government directs attention towards cultural confrontation. The labour findings demand scrutiny of other threats: household deprivation, interrupted education and unsafe workplaces.
Addressing these problems requires concrete policy choices. DİSK-AR recommends income security for families, higher adult wages, stronger public education, free school meals and more effective workplace inspections. Such measures demand sustained funding, enforcement and accountability. Prosecuting activists or blocking rights organisations does nothing to implement those recommendations.
Restrictions on civil society raise another concern: narrowing the space for scrutiny can make failures of protection harder to challenge. Organisations defending expression and equality help sustain the public debate through which neglected social problems become visible.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government therefore faces a concrete test. If protecting children is its priority, how will it reduce their dependence on work and prevent workplace deaths? Its family agenda must be judged by measurable improvements in children’s lives. The report makes that test increasingly difficult to evade.