New Age Verification Era for Children's Social Media Use in Turkey

The Regulation on the Provision of Child-Specific Segregated Services by Social Network Providers and Age Verification, prepared to protect children in the digital environment and ensure they receive age-appropriate services in Turkey, was published in the Official Gazette dated October 10, 2026.

In accordance with the regulation coming into effect as of November 1, new social media accounts cannot be created for children who have not completed the age of 15. Account creation requests from users in this group will be rejected during the age verification procedures to be performed.

While a period until March 31, 2027, is granted for the verification of existing accounts, it was reported that accounts determined not to have completed the age of 15 during this process will be closed. It is stated that the social media usage rate among children in the 6-15 age group in Turkey is 66.1 percent, and approximately 7 million 932 thousand children in this group use social media.

The regulation also introduces high privacy settings for users between the ages of 15 and 18. Accounts in this age group will be kept private by default; starting live broadcasts and the display of personalized advertisements will be blocked. Parents will be able to monitor their children's usage times, settings, and paid transactions. Age verification procedures will be carried out with the help of a token to be generated via the e-Government Gateway. Thanks to the system, only whether the age requirement is met or not will be transmitted to the platforms without transferring all identity information.