The Regulation on the Provision of Child Specific Segregated Services and Age Verification by Social Network Providers (the “Regulation”) was published in the Official Gazette No. 33396 dated 10 October 2026. The Regulation sets out the rules applicable to domestic and foreign social network providers whose services are accessible from Türkiye, introducing new requirements concerning age verification, child-specific services and parental control mechanisms.
Social Network Services Cannot Be Offered to Children Under 15
Under the Regulation, social network providers will be prohibited from providing services to children under the age of 15 and will be required to verify users’ ages at the account creation stage. Age verification will be carried out using an age verification token generated through the e-Government Gateway (e-Devlet Kapısı), which indicates whether the user meets the applicable age requirements. This method will allow users’ ages to be verified without sharing their identity information with social network providers.
Segregated Services Will Be Provided to Users Aged 15–17
The Regulation requires social network providers to offer segregated services to users who have reached the age of 15 but are under 18, with the aim of protecting children’s safety and personal data. Accordingly, children’s accounts will be private by default and may not be made public, while communication and content recommendation features will be restricted.
In addition, live streaming, behavioural profiling, personalised commercial advertising and platform features that may increase the risk of addiction will be prohibited for children’s accounts. These requirements will require social network providers to review their existing account management, advertising and content recommendation systems and make the necessary changes.
Parents Will Be Provided with Account and Usage Controls
Social network providers will be required to offer parental control tools enabling parents to manage their children’s account settings, limit their usage time and control paid transactions.
Requests and Appeals Will Also Be Subject to Human Review
Social network providers will be required to establish request and appeal mechanisms that are accessible, free of charge and available in Turkish to challenge age verification results and restrictions imposed on accounts. The Regulation also requires appeals to be subject to meaningful human review rather than being assessed solely through automated systems. Statistics relating to requests and appeals must also be reported annually to the Presidency of Cybersecurity and made public.
Existing Accounts Must Be Verified by 31 March 2027
The Regulation will enter into force on 1 November 2026. Accounts created before its entry into force that have not been verified using an age verification token must be verified by 31 March 2027. Following verification, existing accounts belonging to users found to be under the age of 15 will be closed, while accounts belonging to users aged 15–17 will be subject to the child-specific service requirements. Non-compliance with the Regulation may result in sanctions under Law No. 5651. Social network providers falling within the scope of the Regulation will need to align their age verification infrastructure, account and privacy settings for child users, advertising and content recommendation systems, and parental control mechanisms with the new requirements
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
