23.04.2026 00:54
The bill containing regulations on social media use for children under the age of 15 was passed and enacted in the Parliament. According to the law, social network providers will not be able to provide services to children under the age of 15. Platforms will be obliged to take necessary measures, including age verification, to prevent the provision of this service. Additionally, the social network provider will provide parental control tools.
The bill amending the Social Services Law and certain other laws, which includes regulations concerning social media, was passed and enacted in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) General Assembly.
SOCIAL NETWORK PROVIDERS WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PROVIDE SERVICES TO CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 15
Regulations have been made regarding the provision titled "removal of content and blocking of access" in the Law on Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Combating Crimes Committed Through Such Publications, which was annulled by the Constitutional Court.
Accordingly, social network providers will not be able to provide services to children under the age of 15 and will be obligated to take necessary measures, including age verification, to prevent the provision of such services. Social network providers will take necessary measures to provide differentiated services specific to children who have turned 15. Measures taken within this scope will be published on the social network provider's own website.
Social network providers will provide clear, understandable, and user-friendly parental control tools. Parental control tools will include mechanisms for controlling account settings, subjecting fee-based transactions such as purchases, rentals, and paid memberships to parental permission or approval, and monitoring and limiting usage time.
Social network providers will be obligated to take measures to block deceptive advertisements.
IF SOCIAL NETWORK PROVIDERS DO NOT COMPLY WITH DECISIONS, THE BTK WILL INTERVENE
A social network provider with more than 10 million daily accesses from Turkey will immediately implement the requirements of a decision given in cases where delay is deemed harmful, within one hour at the latest, and will take all necessary measures to ensure that the publication subject to a decision for content removal or access blocking given under the Law is not published on its own website.
If the obligation is not fulfilled within 30 days from the notification of the administrative fine, the President of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) will prohibit real and legal persons who are resident taxpayers in Turkey from placing new advertisements with the relevant social network provider; within this scope, new contracts cannot be established, and monetary transfers related to this cannot be made. If the obligation is not fulfilled within 3 months from the date the advertisement ban decision is given, the BTK President may apply to the criminal court of peace for a 50% reduction in the internet traffic bandwidth of the social network provider.
If the said obligation is not fulfilled within 30 days from the implementation of the judge's decision accepting the application, the BTK President may apply to the criminal court of peace for a reduction of up to 90% in the internet traffic bandwidth of the social network provider. In the decision to be given upon the second application, the judge may determine a lower rate, provided it is not less than 50%, taking into account the nature of the service provided.
Appeals against these decisions may be filed by the BTK President. Decisions given by the judge will be sent to the BTK to be notified to access providers. The requirements of the decisions will be fulfilled by access providers immediately and within 4 hours at the latest from the notification. If the obligation is fulfilled, the advertisement ban will be lifted and the judge's decisions will automatically become void. The BTK will notify access providers to terminate the intervention on internet traffic bandwidth.
This provision will enter into force 6 months after the publication date of the regulation.
OBLIGATIONS OF GAMING PLATFORMS
The Law also introduced regulations concerning gaming platforms. Accordingly, a gaming platform will not be able to offer games that are not properly rated; however, it may offer unrated games provided they are rated according to the highest age criterion. The gaming platform will be obligated to remove content that is not properly rated, without prejudice to the responsibilities and obligations arising from being a content or hosting provider.
A foreign-origin gaming platform with more than 100,000 daily accesses from Turkey will be obligated to designate a real or legal person representative in Turkey to ensure the fulfillment of notifications, notices, or requests to be sent by the BTK, the Access Providers Association, judicial or administrative authorities, and other obligations within the scope of the regulation, and to notify the BTK of the information regarding this representative. The gaming platform will prominently place the representative's contact information on its website in an easily visible and directly accessible manner.
GAMING PLATFORMS WILL PROVIDE PARENTAL CONTROL TOOLS
The gaming platform will provide clear, understandable, and user-friendly parental control tools.
Parental control tools will include mechanisms for controlling account settings and subjecting fee-based transactions such as purchases, rentals, and paid memberships to parental permission or approval.
The BTK may request explanations from the gaming platform regarding its compliance with this regulation, including corporate structure, information systems, and data processing mechanisms directly related to the implementation of this regulation. The gaming platform will be obligated to provide the information and documents requested by the BTK immediately and within a period not exceeding 15 days, as determined by the BTK.
The procedures and principles regarding the implementation of this regulation, the obligations that the gaming platform must comply with, and rating according to age criteria will be determined by a regulation to be issued by the BTK.
MAJOR PENALTIES ARE COMING
A gaming platform that fails to fulfill the obligations within this scope and the obligations stipulated in the regulation issued by the Authority will be notified by the BTK. If the obligation subject to the notification is not fulfilled within 30 days from the notification, an administrative fine ranging from 1 million Turkish Liras to 10 million Turkish Liras may be imposed on the gaming platform by the BTK President. If the obligation subject to the notification is not fulfilled within 30 days from the notification of the imposed administrative fine, an additional administrative fine ranging from 10 million Turkish Liras to 30 million Turkish Liras may be imposed once. The amount of the administrative fine will be determined by considering the nature and severity of the violation, its impact on users, or the damage incurred.
If the obligation subject to the notification is not fulfilled within 30 days from the notification of the administrative fine imposed for the second time, the BTK President may apply to the criminal court of peace for a 30% reduction in the internet traffic bandwidth of the gaming platform. If the obligation subject to the notification is not fulfilled within 30 days from the implementation of the judge's decision accepting the application, the BTK President may apply to the criminal court of peace for a reduction of up to 50% in the internet traffic bandwidth of the gaming platform.
In his decision on the second application, the judge may determine a lower rate, not falling below 30%, taking into account the quality of the service provided.
Against these decisions, an appeal may be filed by the President of the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code. The decisions given by the judge will be sent to the BTK to be notified to the access providers. The requirements of the decisions shall be fulfilled by the access providers immediately and at the latest within 4 hours from the notification. If the obligation subject to the notification is fulfilled, one-fourth of the imposed administrative fines will be collected, and the judge's decisions will automatically become null and void. The BTK will notify the access providers to terminate the intervention on the internet traffic bandwidth.
This provision will enter into force 6 months after the publication date of the regulation.