Türkiye's Official Gazette has published on Saturday a new regulation on verifying the ages of social media users, barring platforms from providing services to children under 15.
Under the regulation, drafted by the Cybersecurity Presidency, age verification will be carried out through the e-Devlet government portal.
Social media service providers will not be allowed to serve children under 15. Accounts belonging to users who have turned 15 will be subject to child-specific services that take into account the child's best interests and their physical, mental, psychological, social and emotional development.
The regulation requires platforms to apply strict privacy settings by default on children's accounts, set them to private, and disable live broadcasts and personalised advertising on them.
Platforms must also ensure children can only receive messages from accounts they follow, and hide their followers and following lists from other users.
They are also required to provide parental control tools that allow parents to manage their children's account settings, set usage time limits and approve paid transactions.
The regulation is due to take effect on November 1. Age verification for existing accounts must be completed by March 31, 2027, and accounts found to belong to users under 15 will be closed.
