Bhutan
National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-06
Bhutan has no adult-content age-verification statute, no social-media minor-access restriction, and no app-store age-verification requirement.
The Information, Communications and Media Act of Bhutan 2018 (ICMA) does impose an age-appropriate design duty of the kind this topic tracks: an ICT and Media facility, service provider, or vendor must keep a communication addressed to, or of particular interest to, children age-appropriate, take reasonable steps to shield children from offensive communications and from being drawn into business transactions, and refrain from advertisements that exploit a child's vulnerabilities.
The same chapter also bars an ICT or media provider from collecting or disclosing a child's personal information without a parent's or guardian's express, verifiable consent; that duty attaches to personal data rather than to content or advertising, so it is treated as this jurisdiction's data-protection law rather than as an age-appropriate design duty in its own right.
Bhutan's film classification regime, under which the National Film Commission certifies a film for unrestricted, child-unaccompanied, or adults-only exhibition (ICMA ss.254-256, 408-409), is a physical-exhibition censorship scheme rather than an age-verification or age-gating duty on an online or digital service, so it is noted here without being recorded as an instrument.
01
Instruments on record
Information, Communications and Media Act of Bhutan 2018, protection of children in communications
In force
Information, Communications and Media Act of Bhutan 2018, ss.348-349, 351
Effective 2018-01-08 · Applies to private
Section 348 requires that a communication addressed to children, or likely to be of particular interest to children, be age-appropriate, and prohibits exploiting the credulity, lack of experience, or sense of loyalty of children. Section 349 requires an ICT and Media facility or service provider and vendor to take all reasonable steps to prevent offensive communications being delivered to children and to prevent children from being drawn into conducting business transactions of any kind.
Section 351 bars an advertisement, in any form, that is aimed at taking advantage of a child's vulnerabilities. A separate provision in the same chapter, section 350, additionally bars an ICT or media provider from collecting or disclosing a child's personal information without a parent's or guardian's express, verifiable consent; because that duty attaches to personal data rather than to content or advertising, it is not carried on this instrument.
Source: Full text of law