Türkiye's New Child Online Safety Rules: What You Need to Do Now

Live webinar, Thursday 12 November, 16:00 CET: Melis Mert and Miray Muratoğlu Ekici (BTS & Partners) and Beatrice Cavicchioli (k-ID) walk through what Law 7578 requires. Watch the webinar

On 1 May 2026, Türkiye published Law No. 7578 on Amendments to the Social Services Law and Certain Laws in the Official Gazette. Buried inside this "family package" are two articles that rewrite how Türkiye's Internet Law No. 5651 treats children: one for social networks, one for gaming companies. On 10 October 2026, the Cyber Security Presidency followed up with the Regulation on the Provision of Differentiated Services Specific to Children by Social Network Providers and on Age Verification, which fills some of the practical details.

Both the new 5651 provisions and the Regulation take effect on 1 November 2026. That's days away, so in this article we'll walk through what's required and what it means for you.

The new requirements

Law 5651 defines a social network provider broadly: anyone who lets users create, view or share content such as text, images, audio or location for the purpose of social interaction. Even if you don't think of yourself as a social media provider, a game with chat, user-generated content or player profiles, a community feature in an app, or a platform built around sharing might also qualify.

Under the new requirements, if you run a social network accessible from Türkiye:

1. Under-15s can't be served. The law says a social network "cannot provide services" to children under 15 and must take the necessary measures, including age verification, to make that happen. No parental consent can override this rule and every under-15 account opened before 1 November must be closed by 31 March 2027.
2. Effective age verification runs through e-Devlet. A self-declared birthday is not enough. At account creation, you must verify the user's age via the e-Devlet Gateway, a new form of age verification specific for Türkiye.
3. Offer age-appropriate experiences for 15-17 year olds. Services must be designed around minors’ best interests and support their physical, mental, psychological, social and emotional development. In practice, that means executing the Regulation's mandatory safeguards, as well as evaluating additional measures needed to deliver an age-tailored experience.
4. Provide parental controls. These must be clear, easy to use and let a parent configure settings, approve purchases, monitor usage and set spending and time limits. The tools must be available in Turkish, easy to find and switch on, work across devices and operating systems, and tell the minor clearly when they're turned on.
5. Process appeals with a human in the loop. Services must provide a free and accessible mechanism for users to challenge their age verification results, account suspensions or closures, and the age-assurance measures you implemented. Appeals can't be decided by fully automated systems, and account content and data can't be deleted while an appeal is pending.
6. Be transparent. Services must take measures to block deceptive advertising, publish on your website the measures you take to protect users under 18, along with information about your parental controls, appeal volumes, acceptance rates and average resolution times and report it to the Cyber Security Presidency each year.

Law No 7578 also covers game platforms: anyone providing the infrastructure to display, sell, distribute, download or play digital games and related content, or managing user access, licences or interaction between users. If you run a game platform accessible from Türkiye:

1. Only offer properly age-rated games. Unrated games can only be offered if you give them the highest age rating (18+). PEGI applies de facto until the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) issues the forthcoming Turkish rating system.
2. Provide parental controls. These mechanisms shall allow parents to have control over account settings and paid transactions.
3. Appoint a local representative. Foreign game platforms with more than 100,000 daily accesses from Türkiye must appoint a local representative, notify the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) and display the representative's contact details on their website.
4. Answer regulator information requests. When contacted by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), platforms must provide information about their compliance, such as corporate structure, IT systems and data processing, immediately and within the deadline BTK sets, which can't exceed 15 days.

The features most likely in scope

The Regulation is unusually specific about product design for 15–17 year olds. If your service has any of the features below, expect to adapt them for Turkish teen accounts:

• In-app purchases
• Public profiles
• Public friend lists
• Direct messages
• Importing contacts, photos or videos
• Livestreaming
• Personalization, including personalized recommendations, targeted ads and profiling

In addition, be prepared to disable features like infinite scroll and autoplaying videos that are likely to be seen as leading to addictive behavior.

How enforcement works

Social network oversight is managed by the Cyber Security Presidency, whereas gaming platforms fall under the supervision of the BTK, Türkiye's Information and Communications Technologies Authority.

For violations of the new social networks’ duties:

• A fine of up to 3% of your prior calendar year's global turnover.
• An advertising ban if you still haven't complied 30 days after the fine is served.
• Throttling of up to 90% for additional delays

For violations of the new game platforms’ requirements:

• A fine of ₺1–10 million if you haven't complied within 30 days of the notice.
• A second fine of ₺10–30 million if you haven't complied within 30 days of the first fine being served.
• Throttling of up to 50% for additional delays

How k-ID helps

k-ID supplies the age thresholds, feature controls and audit records that Law 7578 calls for:

• AgeKit+ provides age verification for the under-15 block.
• CDK applies Turkish thresholds and routes users by age band, and gates paid features, content and time limits for 15–17s.
• Family Connect gives parents a dashboard for monitoring and approvals.

k-ID helps gaming, social and consumer-AI platforms establish a reliable age signal and adapt the experience to each user and jurisdiction across 200+ markets, with regulatory developments tracked through neimo, our global regulatory database curated by human regulatory experts. If you're working through what Law 7578 means for your platform, we'd be glad to talk.

Join the webinar

What Türkiye’s New Internet Rules require, and how to close the gap now they’re in force. A practitioner walkthrough for compliance, legal and product teams working through Türkiye's Internet Law amendments, co-presented with BTS & Partners. Thursday 12 November, 16:00 CET.

Register to get the recording even if you can't attend: webinar registration link

This article summarises Law 7578 as recorded in k-ID's neimo. as of the date of this publication. Secondary regulation is still emerging. It is indicative only and is not legal advice.