Social media regulations introduced under the pretext of protecting children go far beyond minors. Children under 15 will be banned from social media, while those ages 15 to 18 will face restrictions. Adults, meanwhile, will be required to verify their ages through Turkey’s e-Devlet online government services portal. Starting Nov. 1, identity verification will become a prerequisite for accessing social media. The Freedom of Expression Association warns that the system will either prove ineffective or become a surveillance tool capable of tracking which platforms users verify their identities on and when.
Meltem Akyol
Turkey has introduced sweeping social media restrictions aimed at protecting children from online risks, banning access for those under 15, imposing strict limits on teenagers ages 15 to 17 and requiring all adults to verify their ages through a government-run identity system.
The regulation, which took effect Nov. 1, requires users to verify their ages through Turkey's e-Devlet online government services portal. While the government presents the measure as a way to protect children from addiction, exploitation, cyberbullying and harmful content, digital rights advocates warn that it could undermine online anonymity, restrict freedom of expression and create a new mechanism for state surveillance.
The Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD), a Turkish digital rights organization, argues that the system could either prove ineffective or become a surveillance tool capable of tracking which platforms users access for verification and when.
The association plans to challenge the regulation in court, seeking its annulment and a suspension of its enforcement.
The risks children face on social media, including addiction, exploitation, bullying and exposure to harmful content, have long been debated in Turkey and around the world. Protecting children online is a legitimate and important goal. But the regulation also raises questions about how far fundamental rights can be restricted in pursuit of that goal and where the limits of government oversight of the digital sphere should lie.
At the center of the debate is a fundamental question: Does protecting children require everyone to surrender their privacy?
Social media ban for children under 15
Measures preventing children under 15 from legally accessing social media were first introduced in Australia and France, before similar restrictions entered policy debates in Spain, the Czech Republic and Turkey.
In Turkey, parliament passed the relevant legislation on April 22, 2026. The implementing regulation was published Oct. 10 by the Cybersecurity Directorate, which operates under the Turkish presidency.
Under the regulation, social media providers are prohibited from offering services to children younger than 15. Children in this age group cannot open new accounts, and existing accounts must be closed if age verification establishes that their users are under 15.
There is no exception allowing children to open accounts with parental consent.
Teenagers ages 15 to 17 will still be allowed to use social media, but the services available to them will be subject to restrictions and must be differentiated from those offered to adults.
Age verification through government portal
Age verification will be carried out using a digital token developed by the Cybersecurity Directorate and generated through e-Devlet, Turkey's centralized online portal for accessing government services.
After verifying their identity through e-Devlet, users will generate an age-verification token and upload it to the relevant social media platform.
The token will not contain their name, surname, date of birth or Turkish national identification number. Instead, it will indicate only whether the user meets the minimum age thresholds of 15 and 18.
The regulation prohibits the use of this information for purposes other than age verification.
The requirement took effect for new accounts on Nov. 1. Existing accounts must complete verification by March 31, 2027, at the latest. Accounts that have not been verified by that date must be brought into compliance with the new rules.
Strict restrictions for users ages 15 to 17
Social media accounts belonging to users who are at least 15 but younger than 18 will be subject to extensive restrictions.
- Accounts must be private by default and cannot be made public.
- Lists of followers and accounts followed must not be visible to other users.
- Children's accounts cannot be recommended to other users, and children cannot receive recommendations for other accounts.
- Direct messaging will be limited to accounts the child follows, and read receipts will be disabled.
- Livestreaming will be prohibited.
- Platforms must implement technical measures to prevent screenshots of profile pictures and posts.
- Accounts cannot be linked to phone contacts or contact lists from other applications.
- Infinite scrolling, automatic consecutive playback of content and similar design features will be prohibited.
- Personal data cannot be processed for profiling or personalized advertising.
Platforms will also be required to adjust content-filtering and recommendation systems to reduce children's exposure to material that could harm their development. Services designed in ways that could encourage addiction will be prohibited.
The provisions could require significant changes to how content-driven platforms such as Instagram and TikTok operate, particularly their recommendation algorithms and continuously updated content feeds.
Parents given greater control
Social media companies will also be required to develop parental control tools.
Parents and legal guardians will be able to monitor their children's account settings, track and limit the time they spend on social media, require approval for purchases and paid subscriptions, set spending limits and control location sharing.
The tools must be available in Turkish, easy to use and compatible with different devices.
Children must be notified when parental controls are activated, and platforms must prevent them from disabling the controls without their parents' knowledge.
Graduated penalties for companies that fail to comply
Companies that violate the regulation will initially receive a notice identifying the violation and be given time to comply.
If violations continue, authorities may impose administrative fines, advertising bans and bandwidth throttling, which slows access to a platform.
Users who believe their age has been incorrectly verified or their accounts have been unfairly closed will be entitled to appeal to the platforms free of charge and in Turkish.
Appeals cannot be resolved solely through automated systems; human review will also be required.
Account content and personal data cannot be deleted while an appeal is pending.
Concerns over identification and surveillance of adults
On the surface, the regulation appears to offer a comprehensive framework for protecting children online. But its reach extends far beyond minors.
Adults ages 18 and older will also have to verify their ages through e-Devlet to continue using their social media accounts.
This is where İFÖD raises its central objection.
According to the association, directing every social media user to a government-run identity verification system risks undermining anonymity, one of the fundamental safeguards of the internet.
İFÖD argues that Turkey's Law No. 5651, which governs online publications and certain internet-related offenses, contains no explicit provision requiring identity verification through e-Devlet or subjecting adult users to such verification.
The association maintains that imposing restrictions on fundamental rights through an implementing regulation, without a clear legal basis in legislation, raises serious concerns under the principle of legality.
Surveillance could silence criticism
İFÖD also argues that excluding personal identifiers from age-verification tokens does not, by itself, guarantee privacy.
The critical questions, it says, concern the infrastructure used to generate the tokens, what records are retained during verification and whether the system could enable authorities to monitor users' online activities.
The association identifies two potential risks.
If a verification token cannot be linked to an individual user in any way, it may be impossible to prevent someone from using another person's token.
But if the system is designed to link tokens to individual users to prevent manipulation, it could also make it possible to track who verifies their identity, on which platform and at what time.
In other words, İFÖD warns, the system could either fail to achieve its intended purpose or become an instrument of surveillance.
The concern extends beyond the protection of personal data.
Online anonymity provides an important safeguard for people expressing political opinions, criticizing governments and public institutions, raising allegations of corruption, calling for boycotts or voicing social dissent.
The possibility that users' identities could be verified and their activities monitored may create pressure to self-censor, particularly among those who share content critical of the authorities.
Protecting children or excluding them from the digital world?
Another contentious aspect of the regulation is its absolute ban on social media access for children under 15 and its far-reaching restrictions on those ages 15 to 17.
Building child protection policies primarily around bans and restrictions raises questions about children's rights to access information, express themselves, participate in public life and communicate with others.
The absence of any exception allowing children under 15 to open accounts with parental permission underscores the absolute nature of the ban.
Meanwhile, the restrictions imposed on teenagers ages 15 to 17 could substantially limit their participation in the digital public sphere.
Age restrictions alone may also be insufficient to protect children.
Children could circumvent the rules by misrepresenting their ages, using someone else's account or finding alternative ways to access social media.
Critics argue that regulating access primarily through age limits, rather than directly addressing platforms' algorithms, content recommendation systems, data collection practices and commercial activities targeting children, risks shifting much of the responsibility for online safety onto users.
Parental control measures raise another question: Where should the boundaries between children's privacy and parental supervision be drawn?
İFÖD to challenge regulation in court
İFÖD plans to file a lawsuit with the Court of Cassation seeking to annul the regulation and suspend its enforcement.
The association has also called for social media access not to be made conditional on identity verification through e-Devlet, for alternative methods that protect users' privacy to be recognized and for the freedom of expression and participation rights of children ages 15 to 17 to be safeguarded.
The dispute highlights a broader dilemma facing governments seeking to regulate social media: how to protect children from genuine online harms without compromising privacy, anonymity and freedom of expression for everyone else.
