TLDR
Turkey has banned children under 15 from social media and will require all new accounts to be verified through the government's e-Devlet portal from 1 November 2026. Existing accounts held by under-15s must be closed by 31 March 2027. Critics warn that tying accounts to state identity infrastructure hands authorities broad surveillance power in a country rated 'not free' online.
What the regulation requires
Turkey's new social media regulation, published in Official Gazette No. 33396 on 10 October 2026, takes effect on 1 November 2026.[1] From that date, all new social media accounts must be verified at sign-up using an e-Devlet age verification token.[1] The e-Devlet portal is Turkey's centralised state digital identity system, so age verification at sign-up is inseparable from identification by the state.
Existing accounts face a later deadline. Accounts already active must complete age verification by 31 March 2027, and any account found to belong to a user under 15 will be closed.[1] Social media providers will be barred from offering services to children under 15, TRT World reported.[3]
Rules for 15 to 17-year-olds
Teenagers aged 15 to 17 who pass the age check face a distinct set of platform obligations.[1] Their accounts will be set to private by default, they cannot live-stream, and platforms may not apply personalised profiling-based advertising to them. Infinite-scroll and autoplay interfaces are also prohibited for this age group.
For advertisers, behavioural targeting and profiling-based ad technologies are no longer available for the 15 to 17 cohort in Turkey, pushing any commercial activity aimed at that audience toward contextual advertising or broad demographic buys.[1]
Civil-liberties critique
Press freedom groups have long warned about Turkey's control of social media. When Turkey tightened its social media law in 2020, Erol Önderoğlu, RSF's Turkey representative, warned that those provisions gave the Turkish government a great deal of control over social media and that if platforms comply with demands from the authorities, many online journalists could be under direct judicial threat.[4]
Freedom House rates Turkey's internet "Not Free" in its Freedom on the Net 2025 report.[2] Critics argue that an age-verification system anchored to state identity infrastructure does more than protect children; it creates a mechanism through which authorities can identify and monitor the accounts of any person who registers, regardless of age.
Verifying whether a user is under 15 or under 18 through a government portal requires the platform to interact with that portal on behalf of each user, producing a linkage between a real identity and an account. Turkey has a documented record of internet censorship and surveillance, and critics say that linkage carries risks well beyond the stated child-protection objective.[2]
Where Turkey fits globally
Turkey joins Australia and Indonesia in imposing age-based restrictions on minors' access to social media platforms. Australia's under-16 ban drew parallel criticism that verifying the age of some users means identifying all of them; Turkey's version goes further by anchoring verification explicitly to state-issued credentials rather than third-party age assurance services.
The regulation's full title is "Sosyal Ağ Sağlayıcı Tarafından Çocuklara Özgü Ayrıştırılmış Hizmet Sunulmasına ve Yaş Doğrulamaya İlişkin Yönetmelik". The 31 March 2027 deadline for existing accounts gives platforms just under five months after the November go-live to audit and close non-compliant profiles.[1]
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