Turkey to ban social media for children under 15 from 1 November, using e-Devlet

Turkey will bar social networks from serving children under 15 starting 1 November 2026. The rules have been published in the Official Gazette, and Inci Ozbek of Bloomberg reported on their contents. They take effect in 22 days. In that time, platforms need to rework their sign-up flow: a user's age must be confirmed with a token from the government's e-government system. Children under 15 who are identified will be blocked.

How the verification works

The key detail is technical. Turkey does not rely on a "date of birth" field, which a child can fill in within two seconds. The source of age verification is the state e-Devlet system, and the platform receives a token from it. Presumably, the token confirms the user's age status and does not require handing the service a full ID. How the token works and what data reaches the platform is not disclosed in the portion of the publication available to us. It is one of the first questions the lawyers at Meta, Google, ByteDance and X will ask.

For new users, the scheme is straightforward: sign-up, token, then admission or refusal. For existing accounts, the rules also set obligations, but the details are cut off in the available part of the material. It is therefore unclear whether platforms will have to re-verify their entire user base or whether acting on signals and complaints will be enough.

What is known so far

• Start date: 1 November 2026.
• Age threshold: under 15.
• Legal basis: rules in Turkey's Official Gazette.
• Verification method: a token from the government's e-Devlet system at sign-up.
• Penalty for the account: identified users under 15 are blocked.
• Not disclosed: the size of fines, the list of platforms, how existing accounts will be handled.

Where this fits

Turkey is following the path Australia set. Australia's ban for children under 16 took effect in December 2025, and platforms face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars. Several European countries are also discussing similar measures. The Turkish version differs in that verification is tied to a state digital identity, not to a third-party verifier or facial age estimation.

There is also local context. Turkey has a long history of pressuring platforms: a 2020 law required large networks to appoint local representatives and allowed bandwidth throttling for non-compliance. In March 2025, after the arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu, the country throttled X, YouTube and Instagram. Critics will almost certainly raise the question of side effects: a government token used to log in to a social network technically gives the authorities more ways to link an account to a real person. Defenders of the rules will counter that children matter more. Both arguments will be loud, and the text of the implementing regulations will determine which one proves stronger.

What to do before 1 November

For platforms, the next three weeks are about integration. They need to wire the e-Devlet token into the sign-up flow, design for refusal and appeal, build a blocking mechanism, and ask the regulator what happens to existing accounts. Teams that already have age filters for the Australian market will be in a better position, but they are unlikely to be able to reuse them directly because of the tie to the government system.

For developers and product teams working in Turkey, the takeaway is practical: check whether your service falls under the definition of a social network in the final text of the rules. Messengers, gaming chats and apps with feeds may end up in a gray area.

Parents should explain to their children in advance that accounts may be blocked. For families where teenagers use social networks for school or to keep in touch with relatives abroad, it is better to discuss alternatives ahead of time. The full text of the rules and the platforms' reaction will determine how strict the ban proves in practice.