Social media regulation for children under 15 takes effect in November
With the decision published in the Official Gazette, the new principles that social network providers must implement for child users have become clear.
The social media regulation, prepared by the Presidency of Cybersecurity and enacted after being approved by the Turkish Grand National Assembly in April, is coming into force as of November 1.
Decision published in the Official Gazette
According to the decision published in the Official Gazette, the social media regulations targeting children under 15 will enter into force on November 1.
Starting from this specified date, social network providers will not be able to offer any services to children who have not reached the age of 15.
Scope and principles of the regulation
With the regulation prepared by the Presidency of Cybersecurity, many new procedures and principles have gained clarity.
In this context, rules such as age verification for accessing services, parental control tools, and the provision of segregated services have been established.
Legislative process and preparations
The proposal in question had officially become law after being approved in the Turkish Grand National Assembly last April.
Social network providers are expected to complete the necessary technical infrastructure preparations for the implementation that will start on November 1.
Segregated service for users over 15
Social network providers are mandated to take various measures while offering segregated services for children who have reached the age of 15.
During this process, the best interests of the child and their physical, mental, psychological, social, and emotional developmental needs will be taken into consideration.
Secure age verification with e-Government integration
Age determination procedures will be carried out through a secure technical token to be provided via the e-Government Gateway.
In this shared technical token, the user's identity information will be kept confidential, and only information regarding whether they meet the age limit will be transmitted.
Protection of personal data and privacy
The protection of personal data will be meticulously applied as a fundamental principle across all age verification processes.
Secure methods that allow determining only the age threshold without performing identity identification will be preferred.
Rejection of account opening requests
Account opening requests of children who are understood not to have reached the age of 15 as a result of the applied age verification will not be approved.
Additionally, age verification methods will be kept technically robust against false declarations and manipulation attempts.