Turkey’s ban on social media services for children under 15 took effect on Sunday, along with rules requiring users to verify their age through the government’s online services portal, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The presidential Cybersecurity Directorate announced the start of the system on Saturday, saying the measures were intended to protect children and provide age-appropriate services for teenagers.
The requirements extend beyond children’s accounts: Platforms must check the age of users opening new accounts, while existing accounts must be verified by March 31, 2027.
The government says the system will protect children without sharing their identities with social media companies. Freedom House has warned that mandatory age checks threaten online privacy in a country where online expression is already heavily restricted.
The regulation, published on October 10, requires users to authenticate themselves through e-Devlet, Turkey’s government services portal, to obtain a digital token that they upload to the relevant platform.
The token indicates whether a user meets the age thresholds of 15 and 18. The regulation says it must not contain names, usernames or other identifying information and cannot be used by platforms for purposes other than age verification.
Platforms must reject applications from children under 15. Existing accounts found to belong to children below that age must be closed following notification, with an opportunity to challenge the decision.
Users aged 15 to 17 must be offered services with additional protections. Their accounts must remain private, livestreaming and personalized advertising are prohibited and direct messages can come only from accounts they follow.
Platforms must also provide parental controls over settings, screen time and paid transactions as well as a free appeals process in Turkish that includes human review.
The underlying amendments to Turkey’s internet law were published on May 1, with a six-month transition period for the social media provisions.
In its latest Freedom on the Net 2026 report, Freedom House rated Turkey’s internet as “Not Free,” with a score of 31 out of 100, unchanged from the previous year. The report cited social media restrictions during opposition demonstrations, widespread website blocking and criminal prosecutions over online posts.
This article is republished from Turkish Minute.
