Social media platforms have been prohibited from offering services to children under 15 years of age in Turkey, with new regulations published in the country’s Official Gazette on Saturday.

The rules, enacted by the Cyber Security Directorate, forbid social network providers from providing services to persons under the age.

The rules also mandate that platforms provide age-appropriate services and put in place the necessary measures to protect users aged 15 and above, especially regarding their best interests and development, particularly for minors.

Platforms face stricter child-safety requirements

The new rules will require social media companies to take children’s physical, mental, psychological, social and emotional development into account in designing and providing their services.

Providers must also be transparent about their age-verification systems and the structures of their algorithms and policies for children.

These systems have to be auditable and testable by the users, parents and the Cyber Security Directorate according to the published rules.

Platforms should also provide easy-to-use and explicit parental control settings to support parents’ access and online use of the platform by their children.

Age verification must protect personal data

The regulations stress the importance of protecting the privacy and personal data of the users in connection with age verification procedures.

It is important to note that verification systems should not be used to establish a person’s identity, but simply whether they have reached the appropriate age.

The method is designed to enable platforms to impose the age restrictions without gathering and handling unnecessary personal details.

The report did not detail how the providers would implement these requirements in practice, or the type of technical approaches they would take to verify the users’ ages.

New legislation underpins social media restrictions

The rules are based on the legislation on social media that the Turkish parliament adopted in April.

The new policies would add new duties to websites to limit access for younger kids and make parental controls easier to use and more available for older minors.

A number of new guidelines are also bringing more transparency in the design of platforms for children and in the working of their age verification mechanisms.

The new regulations are a further step in Turkiye’s attempts to manage children’s access to social media, though the extent to which they’ll be effective will depend on enforcement and the way social media providers respond by changing their products to align with the new regulations.