Turkey's under-15 ban starts on 1 November, and the age check comes from the state
A regulation published on 10 October bars under-15s from social media, routes every age check through the government's e-Devlet portal, and turns off livestreaming and endless feeds for 15 to 17-year-olds.
Turkey will bar children under 15 from social media from 1 November 2026, under a regulation published in the Official Gazette on 10 October by the presidency's Cybersecurity Directorate. It puts into effect a law that Turkey's parliament passed in April.
The age check is run by the state, not the platforms. A user gets an age token through e-Devlet, the government's online services portal, and uploads it to the app. The token says only whether the holder is under 15 and, if not, whether they are under 18: no name, no username. Existing accounts must be checked by 31 March 2027, and accounts found to belong to under-15s are closed.
For 15 to 17-year-olds the protections are rules, not settings. Accounts are private with no public option. Only accounts the teenager follows can message them, and read receipts are off. They cannot start a livestream, no feed may keep serving the next video on a scroll or swipe, and nothing may be personalised to the child's behaviour or used for targeted adverts.
Parental controls are compulsory too. They must cover account settings, parental approval and spending limits for purchases, screen time and location sharing, and the child must be told when they are switched on and cannot turn them off without the parent.
Why this matters here. The UK has taken the other route on both counts. Its ban leaves the age check to the platforms, and Ofcom has said it will give Parliament a rapid assessment by the end of October of how highly effective checks at 16 could work. And the UK's protections for 16 and 17-year-olds, the overnight curfew and autoplay off, are defaults that older teens can switch back. Turkey starts with one state-issued check for everyone and a teenage tier with no off switch.
Nothing changes for your child's accounts, and the UK timetable is unaffected: regulations before Christmas, enforcement from spring 2027. If you want Turkey's teen defaults at home, a private account and messages only from people your child follows are the two to check first. Our setup guides cover each app, and the country tracker compares the rules.