Turkey age verification rules for social media came into force on 1 November, barring children under 15 from opening accounts and placing tight limits on how platforms treat 15 to 17-year-olds. The regulation, published in the Official Gazette (Resmî Gazete) on 10 October by the Presidency’s Cyber Security Directorate, requires users to prove their age with a token generated through e-Devlet, the state’s online services portal.
The design is what sets Turkey’s approach apart. Rather than leave age checks to the platforms, the state issues the proof itself, and the token tells a platform only whether the holder is over 15 and, if so, whether they are over 18. Existing accounts have until 31 March 2027 to be verified; accounts found to belong to under-15s will be closed.
In brief
- Under-15s may no longer be offered social media accounts in Turkey; the rules took effect on 1 November.
- Age is proved with an e-Devlet token that carries only an age band, not a name or ID number.
- Accounts for 15 to 17-year-olds must be private by default, with no live streaming, infinite scroll or personalised ads.
How Turkey age verification works through e-Devlet
Under the regulation, a user generates a token through e-Devlet and uploads it to the platform when creating an account. The platform may use it only for age verification. After that, platforms must run their own checks, and if they have reasonable grounds to suspect a user is under age they must suspend the account until it is verified again. Visitors who are not resident in Turkey are exempt, but they can obtain an exceptional token using passport details.
Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş set out the rules after a Cabinet meeting on 13 October. “We are not leaving it only to social media platforms; we are checking it ourselves,” she said (TSN translation). She also said platforms would estimate users’ ages with their own technology while they use the service.
The approach differs from the UK, where Ofcom has named four age-check methods that platforms can choose from for its under-16 ban, and from Greece, which passed an under-15 ban with age checks from 2027.
What changes for 15 to 17-year-olds
Teenagers aged 15 to 17 can still use social media, but in a separate, restricted service. Their accounts must be private by default, with no option to make them public. Follower and following lists are hidden. They can receive messages only from accounts they follow, without read receipts. Platforms may not sync their contacts, recommend accounts to follow, offer live streaming, or use infinite scroll and autoplay feeds. Screenshots must be blocked, and features the regulation calls addictive are banned, as are profiling and personalised advertising. “Children not being constantly exposed to advertising is also part of our regulation,” Göktaş said (TSN translation).
Parents must be given tools to manage settings, approve spending and set limits on paid transactions, and control screen time and location sharing. The tools must be available in Turkish, notify the child when used, and not intrude on the child’s privacy more than necessary.
Users who think they have been wrongly blocked get a free appeal with human review, in Turkish, and can complain to the directorate or go to court. Platforms must publish annual appeal statistics.
A state-issued token puts the government at the centre of age checks
The token model answers a real problem. Most age-check schemes ask platforms or third-party providers to see an ID document or a face scan, and critics worry about what happens to that data. Turkey’s version gives platforms a yes-or-no answer about an age band and nothing else, which on paper is more private than uploading a passport to an app.
The trade-off is that the state becomes the gatekeeper for every new account. A token from e-Devlet links account creation to the government’s identity system, even if the platform never sees the name. How much the government’s side records about which tokens are generated, and when, is not set out in the regulation, and the technical guide that will define the details has not yet been published.
Enforcement is the other open question. Sanctions fall under Turkey’s existing internet law, Law 5651, and platforms must be warned and given time to comply before any penalty. The regulation does not set new fine amounts. The restrictions on design for older teens go further than many rules elsewhere and address the same worries about compulsive use that are at the heart of the Los Angeles trial of Meta and Snap, while the Philippine House has voted to bar under-13s from social media. Whether global platforms build a separate Turkish teen service, or simply restrict features for all young users, will show how much the rules bite.
Scammers have already spotted the deadline. The Presidency’s Centre for Combating Disinformation warned of fake texts and emails telling people their accounts would be closed, Anadolu Agency reported, and told users to generate tokens only on turkiye.gov.tr or the official e-Devlet app. The next date to watch is 31 March 2027, when every existing account in Turkey must have been verified.
Sources
- Resmî Gazete: regulation on age verification for social network providers, issue 33396 (10 Oct 2026, PDF)
- Anadolu Agency: DMM warning on social media age verification (23 Oct 2026)
- Ministry of Family and Social Services: Minister Göktaş answers journalists’ questions after the Cabinet meeting (13 Oct 2026)
Related stories
- Ofcom Names Four Age Checks for the UK’s Under-16 Social Media Ban
- Greece Passes Under-15 Social Media Ban, With Age Checks From 2027
- Philippine House Votes to Bar Under-13s From Social Media, 287 to 3
- Meta and Snap Go on Trial in LA Over Teen Social Media Addiction
Image: Santeri Viinamäki / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, modified by TSN; this image is also CC BY-SA 4.0
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