Turkey's 2026 Under-15 Social Media Ban: Rules, Start Date and e-Devlet Age Checks

From 1 November 2026, social networks operating in Turkey may no longer serve children under 15. The rule comes from Law No. 7578, which parliament adopted on 22 April 2026 and which was published on 1 May. Its working detail is in a 14-article regulation on age verification and "child-specific separated services", published in the Official Gazette (No. 33396, dated 10 October 2026) and drafted by the Presidency's Cybersecurity Directorate. Users prove their age with a token generated through e-Devlet, the state's online services portal. Teenagers aged 15 to 17 get restricted, private-by-default accounts. Every existing account in the country must pass the age check at least once by 31 March 2027. Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş presents the rules as child protection. Digital-rights groups argue that they end anonymous use of social media for adults as well.

What exactly does the law ban, and who does it apply to?

Article 22 of Law 7578 inserted the under-15 rule into Law No. 5651, Turkey's main internet law. The law's social-media and gaming provisions take effect six months after publication, which makes the start date 1 November. Göktaş had promised on 19 May that the rules would be in force "within six months". The October regulation applies to every domestic and foreign social network provider that can be reached from Turkey. Providers must turn down account requests from anyone verified as under 15, and parental permission does not create an exception. The regulation names no individual apps. In the Turkish press, explainers have used TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube as examples. Karar reported that messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Signal and iMessage fall outside the ban, but it called the status of Telegram and Discord speculation. A separate part of the same law covers gaming platforms. They must age-rate their games and offer parental controls, and foreign gaming platforms with more than 100,000 daily visitors from Turkey must appoint a local representative.

How will age verification work?

When a user opens an account, the platform asks for an "age verification token". The Cybersecurity Directorate's online service issues it after the user logs into e-Devlet. According to Euronews Türkçe and the lawyer Filiz Sütçigil, writing on Hukuki Haber, the token tells the platform only whether the holder is over 15 or over 18. It carries no name, birth date or username, and platforms may use it only to check age. After that first check, providers may apply their own single or layered methods for as long as the account exists. They may suspend an account they reasonably suspect is being used outside its verified age band, and the user must present a token again to reactivate it. Short-stay visitors who do not live in Turkey can get an exceptional token based on passport details. Existing accounts must be verified by 31 March 2027, and accounts found to belong to under-15s are closed after the user is notified. Appeals must be free and in Turkish, and they cannot be decided by fully automated systems.

What changes for 15–17-year-olds and parents, and what are the penalties?

Users aged 15 to 17 get a separated service. Their accounts are private, with no public option, and their follower and following lists are hidden. Only accounts they follow can message them, and senders see no read receipts. Live streaming is banned, and so are endless swipe-to-play feeds and other designs meant to create dependency. Platforms must try to block screenshots of their photos and posts. Their data may not be used for profiling or behaviour-based advertising. Parents get Turkish-language tools to manage account settings, approve purchases and set spending caps, limit screen time and see location sharing. The child must be told when these controls are switched on. Parents and children face no fines. Penalties fall on platforms, under the sanctions in Law 5651. According to Karar's summary, a platform first receives administrative fines. If it has not complied within 30 days, it can be banned from new Turkish advertising. If it still has not complied after three months, judges can order its bandwidth cut by 50% and then by up to 90%. The regulation also requires that a platform be notified of a breach and given time to fix it before any sanction.

Why do critics object?

In April, the Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD) called the e-Devlet token the end of online anonymity. It argued that tying national ID logins to social-media accounts would encourage self-censorship. It also warned that tokens could be sold, made by parents for young children, or generated from hacked e-Devlet accounts. İFÖD asked parliament to drop Article 22. In a February interview with Medyascope, Yaman Akdeniz, a professor at Istanbul Bilgi University and an İFÖD co-founder, said that checking children's ages would mean checking the identity of adults too. On 25 June, the main opposition CHP asked the Constitutional Court to annul and suspend Law 7578. CHP MP Gökhan Günaydın objected to a single threshold at 15, the bandwidth sanctions and the provision for facial recognition. The final regulation relies on e-Devlet tokens rather than facial recognition. A study by the think tank EDAM, reported by Karar on 9 October, found that 67% of respondents were worried about linking accounts to official ID and 53% wanted a delay or a phased start. Its research director, Sinan Ülgen, called for alternatives to e-Devlet, such as the remote identity checks banks use.

How does Turkey compare with Australia, the EU and others?

Australia's minimum age of 16 took effect on 10 December 2025. Platforms there must take "reasonable steps" to keep under-16s off, and the maximum penalty is A$49.5 million. Parents and children are not penalised. Messaging and gaming services are exempt. By June 2026 about 5 million accounts had been removed, and Meta alone blocked more than 750,000. Even so, data reported in August suggested that under-16s' use had risen again through false ages and VPNs. The government plans to double the maximum fine to A$99 million. France's parliament approved an under-15 ban in July, but the Constitutional Council struck it down on 14 August as a disproportionate limit on free expression. A revised text went to Brussels on 14 September. The European Commission's proposed Kids Act would ban under-13s and give 13–15-year-olds supervised "mini accounts". It needs the agreement of the European Parliament and the member states. Denmark agreed in November 2025 on an under-15 ban with some parental exceptions from age 13. Greece plans one from 1 January 2027, the UAE has set 15 and Malaysia 16. Turkey is unusual in tying verification to a single state login and in applying the check to every adult account.

What happens next?

Timeline. 22 April 2026: parliament adopts Law 7578. 1 May: the law is published in the Official Gazette (No. 33240). 19 May: Göktaş says the rules will be in force within six months. 25 June: CHP files its Constitutional Court challenge. 10 October: the age-verification regulation is published (No. 33396). 1 November: the ban and the separated-service rules take effect for new accounts. 31 March 2027: deadline for every existing account to complete at least one token check, after which unverified under-15 accounts are closed. Still pending: a ruling from the Constitutional Court, which had not ruled on CHP's request as of mid-October. Also unclear are how quickly e-Devlet's token service and the platforms' own systems will be ready, and whether major platforms will comply or face the advertising bans and bandwidth cuts the law allows. The Cybersecurity Directorate may issue further implementing rules, and platforms must publish annual statistics on appeals.