Age Limit (18+)

Why Yudum has an 18+ age limit

You must be at least 18 to create an account on Yudum and use the chat rooms. This is not a matter of preference: it is a safety rule we adopted to protect our users — children above all — and it is consistent with the law in Turkey, the European Union and the United States. This page explains why the limit exists, which laws it relates to and how it works on Yudum.

Why it matters

• Protecting children. Open chat rooms, private messages and voice/video calls are places where identity is hard to verify. That is where the risk of adults with bad intentions reaching children, online abuse and cyberbullying is highest. An 18+ limit is the first and most basic safeguard.
• Adult conversations. Even with filters and moderation, slang, rude language or adult topics can come up in real time in live chat and voice/video conversations. That environment is not suitable for minors.
• Personal data safety. Minors are more likely to share their phone number, address, school or photos with strangers. The limit keeps that risk to a minimum.
• Platform responsibility. Content and hosting providers are responsible for the content on their service and for removing unlawful content once notified. Children being present in an adult-oriented chat environment exposes both users and the platform to serious legal risk.

Legal background

🇹🇷 Turkey

• Turkish Civil Code, Art. 11: majority begins on completing eighteen years of age. A person under 18 is a minor.
• Child Protection Law No. 5395, Art. 3 and Turkish Penal Code, Art. 6(1)(b): anyone who has not completed eighteen years of age is a child.
• Turkish Penal Code, Art. 226 (Obscenity): giving a child products containing obscene images, texts or words, or showing, reading out or playing their content to a child, is a criminal offence.
• Turkish Penal Code, Art. 103 (Sexual abuse of children): penalises all forms of sexual abuse of children.
• Internet Law No. 5651, Arts. 4 and 5: a content provider is responsible for the content it makes available; a hosting provider must remove unlawful content once duly notified. Art. 8 provides for blocking access in cases of child sexual abuse and obscenity offences.
• Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (KVKK): personal data must be processed lawfully and fairly; whether a minor can give valid consent is governed by the capacity rules of the Civil Code.

🇪🇺 European Union

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Art. 8: for online services, processing a child's personal data on the basis of consent is lawful only if the child is at least 16; below that age, parental consent is required. Member States may set a lower age, provided it is not below 13.
• Digital Services Act (DSA), Art. 28: online platforms accessible to minors must put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security of minors. Although this section does not apply as a legal obligation to micro and small enterprises (DSA Art. 19), Yudum adopts the same level of protection as its own rule.

🇺🇸 United States

• COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. 6501–6505; FTC Rule, 16 CFR Part 312): places strict obligations — above all verifiable parental consent — on online services that collect personal information from children under 13, or knowingly do so.

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

• Online Safety Act 2023: requires services where users interact with each other to assess whether children can access them and, where needed, to put robust age assurance in place.

Why 18 and not 13 or 16?

The 13–16 thresholds in GDPR and COPPA set the age at which a child may consent to the processing of their personal data. They do not make it safe for a child to chat freely with adults. Yudum combines public rooms, private messaging and voice/video calls, and under Turkish law both majority and the criminal-law definition of a child are tied to the age of 18. That is why we apply 18 as the most protective and consistent limit.

How it works on Yudum

• Your date of birth is required to sign up. It is mandatory in the sign-up form, when signing in with Google and in the in-chat registration window. Sign-ups under 18 are not accepted.
• Guests are asked for their age. Anyone joining the chat without an account is asked for a date of birth; the date is not stored on our servers — only the answer is remembered in the browser.
• Your date of birth stays private. It is not shown on your profile or shared with other users.
• Accounts found to be under the age limit are suspended. The suspension lifts automatically once the person reaches the age limit.
• Moderation. Self-declared checks can be bypassed, so administrators and operators review suspicious profiles and take action.

Seen a suspicious account?

You can report a user you believe is under 18, or inappropriate behaviour towards a child, through the contact form. Reports are kept confidential.

Sources

• Turkish Civil Code No. 4721 (Turkish)
• Child Protection Law No. 5395 (Turkish)
• Turkish Penal Code No. 5237 (Turkish)
• Internet Law No. 5651 (Turkish)
• Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (Turkish)
• General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679
• Digital Services Act (EU) 2022/2065
• FTC — COPPA Rule
• UK Online Safety Act 2023

This page is for information only and is not legal advice.