Turkey

National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-06

Turkey has no adult-content age-verification statute or app-store age-verification requirement. The Penal Code's obscenity article (Law No. 5237, Art. 226) criminalises giving, showing, displaying, selling, renting, distributing, or advertising obscene material where a child (defined at Art. 6(1)(b) as a person who has not completed eighteen years) could obtain, see, or be shown it, and separately criminalises child sexual abuse material at a materially higher penalty tier.

That is a criminal prohibition running to any person, not an age-verification or age-gating obligation placed on a service. Two more targeted duties do impose that kind of obligation. The Law on Regulation of Internet Publications (Law No. 5651) requires a social network provider with more than one million daily accesses from Turkey to take measures providing a service specifically differentiated for children, enforceable by a fine of up to three percent of the provider's global turnover.

The Radio and Television Broadcasting Law (Law No. 6112) requires an on-demand broadcasting service provider to present content that could adversely affect the physical, mental, or moral development of children and young people so that they would not normally encounter it. Law No. 5651's children's-service duty is itself subject to a further amendment (Law No. 7578, 22 April 2026) that takes effect on 1 November 2026 and had not yet altered the operative text as of this review.

Instruments on record

Law on Regulation of Internet Publications, Social Network Providers' Duty to Children

In force

Law No. 5651, Ek Madde 4, as amended by Law No. 7418 (13 October 2022)

Effective 2022-10-13 · Applies to private

Additional Article 4 of the Law on Regulation of Internet Publications applies to a social network provider, Turkish or foreign, with more than one million daily accesses from Turkey. Paragraph 7, added by Law No. 7418 (13 October 2022), requires the social network provider to take the measures necessary to offer a service specifically differentiated for children.

Paragraph 20, added by the same Law, makes a provider that fails this duty, along with several other duties in the same article, liable to an administrative fine of up to three percent of its global turnover in the preceding calendar year, imposed by the head of the enforcing authority; the authority responsible for enforcing this Law was renamed the Cybersecurity Presidency (Siber Güvenlik Başkanlığı), succeeding the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), by Law No. 7590 (24 July 2026).

A further amendment, Law No. 7578 (22 April 2026), makes additional changes to this article effective 1 November 2026, which had not yet altered the operative text described here as of this review.

Source: Full text of law

Radio and Television Broadcasting Law, On-Demand Service Minor Protection

In force

Law No. 6112 (Radio and Television Broadcasting Law), Art. 8/3

Effective 2011-03-03 · Applies to private

Article 8(3) of the Radio and Television Broadcasting Law requires an on-demand broadcasting service provider (an audiovisual streaming or video-on-demand service within the Radio and Television Supreme Council's jurisdiction) to ensure that a broadcast service of a nature that could adversely affect the physical, mental, or moral development of children and young people is presented in a way that they would not normally hear or see under ordinary conditions.

A parallel duty at Art. 8(2), strengthened by Law No. 7077 in 2018, separately bars broadcasting such content during time periods children could watch even where a protective symbol is used, for linear radio and television broadcasting rather than on-demand services.

Source: Full text of law