Restrictions on children's use of social media in Turkey will come into force on November 1. According to FinFly.News, the corresponding regulation from the Cybersecurity Directorate under the Turkish Presidential Administration was published on October 10 in the official government gazette Resmi Gazete.
The document states that the restrictions take effect on November 1, 2026. Under the new rules, social media platforms will not be able to provide services to children under 15. For users aged 15 to 18, platforms will be required to create a separate mode with enhanced security and privacy protection measures. For already created and active accounts, age verification must be completed by March 31, 2027.
Users' ages will be verified through the nationwide public services system e-Devlet using a special identifier. Accounts of teenagers aged 15 to 18 will be private by default. They will be prohibited from live streaming, personalized advertising, and certain content recommendation mechanisms. Social media platforms will also not be able to recommend other accounts to minors based on data collected about them, and their own profiles cannot be suggested to other users.
In addition, requirements for the protection of personal data of underage users are being tightened. Social media platforms will not be able to synchronize children's accounts with phone books, contact lists, email address books, as well as friend and subscription lists in other applications and on other platforms. They are also prohibited from accessing such sources and processing data extracted from them.
Beyond restrictions for underage users, the regulation obliges social media platforms to create and provide parents and guardians with tools to control accounts, their settings, usage time, geolocation, paid transactions, and other functions.