Parliament passed the social media law, 15 age limit increased

The General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly enacted the new regulation on social media on April 22 and Providing social networking services to children under the age of 15 added it to the text of the law. The new text not only imposes an age limit, age verification, parental control It also imposes clear obligations on the platforms in terms of rapid response and rapid response. This change directly affects the product, membership and control steps of major social network companies operating in Türkiye. In the coming period, new rules will come to the fore in the account opening process, security options and usage limits of children’s accounts.

With the law, social network providers will create separate security measures for child users and For children over 15 years of age It will provide services separated from adults. In addition, companies will introduce technical systems that verify user age and make protection settings more visible in accounts for children. In-account usage habits as well as the access process are included in this text. For this reason, many steps ranging from membership opening to content circulation will change in a short time.

The regulation also makes parental control tools mandatory. Accordingly, families will be able to manage account settings, approve purchases and paid membership transactions, monitor usage time and set time limits. In addition, the law imposes direct liability on platforms against advertising content that may mislead children or cause financial loss. Thus, not only the age of access but also the commercial content encountered during use are among the control headings.

There is also a tougher framework on the enforcement side of the law. Daily access from Türkiye more than 10 million social network providers, decisions made in cases where delay is harmful immediately and within one hour at the latest will implement it. If the obligations are not fulfilled, the process extends to an advertising ban, and then BTK can apply to the criminal judgeship of peace for band narrowing. The framework included in the commission report is that in some violations, administrative fines can be imposed on companies. up to 3 percent of global turnover in the previous calendar year takes it out.

The regulation brings new obligations to social networking companies

This text adds new articles to the previously enacted social network regulations. In 2020, Türkiye imposed representative, reporting and gradual sanction obligations on social network providers. The now-passed law makes the topics of child safety, age verification and parental tools more visible. A new compliance calendar is emerging, especially for large platforms, in the areas of product design, user approval and content intervention.

The legal basis of the regulation has also been shaped by recent judicial decisions. The Constitutional Court had previously annulled some provisions in Law No. 5651 and the new package, especially removal of content with access denied It contains articles that redefine the gap in the titles. For this reason, the social media law does not only focus on children’s accounts, but also establishes a new framework for content removal and access measures. The text of the law affects both the technical steps of the platforms and the administrative processes on the implementation side.

The adopted provisions cover a wide range of areas, from the account opening process to advertising control. A separate service will be provided for child users, parental control tools will be visible within the account, and permission mechanisms will be operated for paid transactions. In addition, major platforms will fulfill urgent decisions within an hour, and unfulfilled obligations may trigger the advertising ban and band narrowing process. Product, legal and public policy teams in social media companies’ Türkiye operations will work on these topics from now on.