Türkiye bars social media for under-15s and rules out personalized ads for 15 to 17 year olds

Published in Official Gazette issue 33396, in force from November 1

The regulation on child-specific, segregated services by social network providers and on age verification was printed in Türkiye's Official Gazette (Resmî Gazete) issue 33396, dated October 10, 2026. Anadolu Ajansı reports that the Presidency's Cybersecurity Directorate (Cumhurbaşkanlığı Siber Güvenlik Başkanlığı) prepared it, and that it sets the procedures for age checks, for a separate service tier for children who have turned 15, and for parental control tools. Euronews Türkçe says the text has 14 articles plus one transitional provision and applies to every domestic or foreign provider reachable from Türkiye. The Gazette published the regulation as a scanned image; we checked the provisions below against it and attribute them to the outlets that reported them.

The headline rule, in Anadolu Ajansı's summary, is that providers may not offer their service to children who have not yet turned 15. The regulation takes effect on November 1. Existing accounts get a transition period: their ages must be verified by March 31, 2027, and existing accounts of users found to be under 15 will be closed. Euronews Türkçe adds that such accounts are closed with notice to the user, and that account data is deleted once any appeal has been decided, or straight away if no appeal is filed.

Age is checked with an e-Devlet token, and 15 to 17 year olds get their own rule set

Verification runs through e-Devlet, the state's online services portal. Anadolu Ajansı says providers will check a user's age at sign-up with an age verification token obtained via the e-Devlet gateway, and will refuse sign-ups from anyone under 15. According to Euronews Türkçe, the token reveals only two thresholds: whether the holder is at least 15, and if so whether they are at least 18. It carries no other personal details, and platforms may use it for nothing beyond the age check. After that first check, platforms run age assurance methods of their own choosing for as long as the service continues, and an account must be suspended where there is reasonable suspicion it is being used outside its age band.

Accounts of 15 to 17 year olds will be private by default, with no live streaming and no personalized ads, Anadolu Ajansı reports. Only accounts these users follow can message them, and their follower and following lists stay hidden from others. Euronews Türkçe reports that such accounts may not be matched against phone contacts, email address books or friend lists on other platforms, may not appear in follow suggestions, and may not use interfaces that serve visual content one item after another through scrolling, tapping or autoplay. Parents get tools to manage account settings, cap usage time and approve paid transactions. Appeals must be reviewed by a human, platforms must publish yearly complaint figures, and breaches fall under the relevant provisions of Law No. 5651.

For advertisers, targeting logic changes for the 15 to 17 audience

The provision that touches brands most directly is the advertising one. Euronews Türkçe reports that teen accounts may not be tailored to a user's behaviour, and that their personal data may not feed profiling or personalized commercial advertising. PPC Land places this rule in Article 8 of the regulation and notes that the text offers no consent route or parental override that would lift it. Per Euronews, the design of content and advertising shown to these users must also take into account the danger of sexual abuse and of commercial exploitation. PPC Land adds that making paid transactions subject to parental approval covers purchases inside apps, paid creator memberships and other paid features offered to teen users.

PPC Land lists several open questions for marketers. In its reading, the text targets profiling and personalization rather than advertising to teens as such, so contextual ads placed by on-screen content seem to remain possible, yet if scrolling and tap-through feeds are switched off for teen accounts, those formats may have little room left to run. Whether the ban on contact matching extends to customer lists uploaded by advertisers is something PPC Land presents as its own inference, not a stated rule. The scope is wide too: according to PPC Land, any natural or legal person that lets users create, view or share content for social interaction falls under the definition, with no user-count threshold. We covered a related case from another market, Meta closing teen accounts in Australia, on August 16.

The calendar is set: November 1, 2026 and March 31, 2027

This story concerns the Turkish market directly. The facts in the sources are these: the regulation was published in Official Gazette issue 33396 on October 10, 2026 and was prepared by the Presidency's Cybersecurity Directorate; under-15s are excluded from social network services and age is verified with a token obtained through e-Devlet; personalized advertising is not shown on accounts of 15 to 17 year olds; the rules take effect on November 1, 2026, and the deadline for verifying existing accounts is March 31, 2027.

What follows is UNALSOFT's own view. For sectors that reach young audiences, such as education, gaming, fashion and cosmetics, it seems sensible to review campaign age ranges, audience definitions and the audience profile of influencer partnerships before November 1. The points still to be settled are framed as open questions in the sources: as PPC Land asks, how contextual advertising will work for 15 to 17 year olds, and whether customer list matching falls within scope. PPC Land also notes that the regulation authorizes the Cybersecurity Directorate to set implementation procedures for Article 8, so further guidance may follow.

Sources

Resmî Gazete, issue 33396 of October 10, 2026 · Anadolu Ajansı, social media age limit regulation published · Euronews Türkçe, what the 15 age limit rules contain · PPC Land, Türkiye's under-15 social media ban