The Regulation on the Provision of Age-Segregated Services for Children and Age Verification by Social Network Providers Has Been Published

The Regulation on the Provision of Age-Segregated Services for Children and Age Verification by Social Network Providers  (the “Regulation”), prepared by the Cyber Security Directorate of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye, was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Türkiye dated 10 October 2026 and numbered 33396.

The Regulation governs the following matters in summary:

• The Regulation sets out the procedures and principles regarding age verification for access to services provided by social network providers, the provision of age-segregated services specifically for children who have reached the age of fifteen, and parental control tools.
• It is stipulated that social network providers may not provide services to children under the age of fifteen.
• It is mandatory to verify users’ age status through an age verification token at the account creation stage. In age verification processes, methods that enable only the determination of whether an age threshold has been reached, rather than identity verification, are envisaged, with due regard to the protection of personal data.
• The creation and use of the age verification token through the e-Devlet Kapısı are regulated. The token is envisaged to contain only information concerning whether the user has reached the age thresholds of fifteen and eighteen, and may not be used for purposes other than age verification.
• Services provided to children whose having reached the age of fifteen has been verified must be configured in a manner that safeguards the best interests of children and protects their physical, mental, psychological, social and emotional development. In this context, measures such as applying high-level privacy settings by default, keeping children’s accounts private, not providing live-streaming features, and not using children’s personal data for profiling or personalised commercial advertising activities are envisaged.
• Social network providers are required to offer clear, understandable and user-friendly parental control tools. These tools must enable the control of account and feature settings, subject paid transactions to parental permission or approval, allow spending limits to be set, and enable usage time to be monitored and restricted.
• For existing accounts opened before the entry into force of the Regulation and not verified through an age verification token, age verification must be carried out at least once by 31 March 2027.
• Accounts of children identified as being under the age of fifteen will be closed after notification. If an objection is raised, the relevant data will be deleted once the process has been concluded; if no objection is raised, the data will be deleted without delay.
• It is mandatory to establish a free and accessible mechanism with a Turkish-language option for receiving and resolving objections concerning age verification results, account suspension or closure, and measures applied within the scope of age-segregated services. It is stipulated that applications and objections may not be reviewed entirely by automated systems and must be subject to meaningful human review.
• With regard to sanctions to be imposed in the event of failure to fulfil the obligations under the Regulation, reference is made to the relevant provisions of Law No. 5651. Before sanctions are imposed, the social network provider must be notified of the non-compliance and granted a reasonable period to remedy it, depending on the nature of the non-compliance.
• Existing accounts opened before the effective date of the Regulation and not verified through an age verification token must be verified no later than 31 March 2027. It is stipulated that accounts of children found to be under the age of fifteen following verification will be closed, while accounts of children found to have reached the age of fifteen will be subject to the principles governing age-segregated services for children.

The Regulation will enter into force on 1 November 2026.

You can access the full text of the Regulation here.

Kind regards,

Zumbul Attorneys-at-Law
info@zumbul.av.tr

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