The House of Representatives has approved the passage of the Child Online Access Protection Bill. The Bill is a significant milestone in efforts to safeguard children across Nigeria’s growing digital landscape. It seeks to establish a national framework to curb online exploitation, promote platform accountability and enforce safety standards for technology companies operating in the country.
According to the National Online Safety Coalition (NOSC), the Bill’s passage is a clear demonstration of the need to address the rising online threats facing Nigerian children. It also noted that the Bill aligns with evidence presented in the recent State of Online Harms in Nigeria report. It further noted that a landmark step that moves Nigeria closer to a digital environment where platforms are held accountable and children can safely explore the online world.
Other key stakeholders expressed approval that the House had taken a bold step to protect children in an increasingly complex digital age and called on the Senate to complete the process, stressing that safeguarding children online cannot be optional.
NOSC highlighted worrying statistics showing that more than half of Nigerian children have experienced some form of online harm, while around 80 per cent of harmful content involving minors remains accessible for over 48 hours before removal.
The Senate has been urged to prioritize the bill’s introduction, consideration and passage. It is expected that the Bill will be transmitted to the President for assent once both chambers agree on a harmonized version.
The Bill is Nigeria’s most ambitious effort yet to create a strong and enforceable standard for child online safety. Policymakers, technology platforms and partners to ensure the final legislation is effective, rights-respecting and aligned with global best practice.
Background
Child Online Protection (COP) has an extensive history, stretching back to early U.S. laws like the Communications Decency Act (1996) and Child Online Protection Act (1998), expanding into global initiatives such as the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) Child Online Protection program (2008), and continuing with national legislation like our very own Child Online Access Protection Bill (2025), which as stated above was recently passed by the House of Representatives.
COP’s history reflects a shift from censorship‑focused laws to comprehensive frameworks emphasizing safety, education, and international cooperation. What follows is a more detailed breakdown of COP legislation, right up to the passage of Nigeria’s Child Online Access Protection Bill.
Like I said earlier, early US laws shaped the beginning of COP, starting with the Communications Decency Act (CDA) in 1996. The CDA was the first attempt to regulate indecent online content for children. It however suffered a major setback the following year, as much of its content was struck down as unconstitutional censorship by the US supreme court as a result of a law suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). ACLU is a non-profit organization in the United States dedicated to defending and preserving the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person by the Constitution and laws of the U.S.
1998 saw the passage of the and Child Online Protection Act (COPA) in the US. COPA criminalized the exposure of harmful online material to minors, but it wasn’t smooth sailing as it faced a number of challenges. Later saw the passage of the Protection of Children from Sexual Predators Act, which strengthened laws against online exploitation.
The new millennium saw the enactment of Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which required schools and libraries to filter harmful content if they were to continue to receive government funding.
By 2008, much of the work the US had done had begun to attract international attention. The first major international initiative came from the ITU. It launched the Child Online Protection (COP) Initiative, which was a global framework to raise awareness, assist governments, and promote safe digital use. From this point on, countries adapted the framework to their peculiarities, and to deal with issues like online safety, cyberbullying prevention, and digital literacy.
Nigeria’s National Communications Commission (NCC) was one of the early adopters of the ITU framework. By 2008-09, it had adopted the framework to promote online safety for children.
By 2016-2017, extensive research was carried out on children’s internet use in Nigeria. Surveys revealed that children suffered high exposure to harmful content (e.g., 6 in 10 girls reported seeing pornography online), thus highlighting urgent need for protection.
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the presence of children online, as a result of stay-at-home orders. This pushed the NCC to localize ITU COP guidelines, create child‑friendly materials like Agent COP activity books and translate them into Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, and Pidgin.
The years 2019-2024, saw a lot of regional COP workshops and advocacy events. Nigeria participated in a number of ITU COP Africa forums. Key takeaways that emerged include the need to fill research gaps and the need for stronger national frameworks.
It was probably as a result of all those workshops that the landmark legislation to shield ~30 million Nigerian minors from cyberbullying, grooming, exploitation, and harmful content was passed. By landmark legislation we are referring to the Child Online Access Protection Bill, that is the subject of this article.
