Nigeria

National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-05

Nigeria has no dedicated adult-content age-verification statute, social-media minor-access restriction, or app-store age-verification requirement. The Child's Rights Act, 2003 (Act No. 26 of 2003) sets Nigeria's general framework of children's rights and protections, including against sexual abuse and exploitation, but its text contains no reference to the internet or an online service.

The Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015 criminalises producing, distributing, offering, or possessing child pornography by means of a computer or network, but this is a criminal prohibition on the content itself rather than an age-verification or age-gating duty on a service provider, and it does not impose a duty tied to the user's age.

The closest instrument to an age-appropriate design code is the National Information Technology Development Agency's Code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries, 2022, which requires a Platform to label, censor, redact, or otherwise control access so that content inappropriate for a child is not viewable to a child, and to inform users not to create, publish, or share content harmful to a child.

01

Instruments on record

Code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries, child-content control duty

In force

NITDA Code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries, 2022, Part II

Effective 2022-09-26 · Applies to private

The Code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries, issued by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) under section 6 of the NITDA Act, 2007 in collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission and the National Broadcasting Commission, applies to all Interactive Computer Service Platforms and Internet Intermediaries operating in Nigeria, a term the Code defines broadly to include social media operators, websites, blogs, media-sharing sites, discussion forums, streaming platforms, and gaming platforms.

Part II requires a Platform to label, censor, redact, or otherwise apply access control so that content inappropriate for a child, such as sexually explicit content or images of violence, is not viewable to a child. Part II also requires a Platform to inform users through its terms of service not to create, publish, modify, transmit, store, or share content harmful to a child.

A Platform must also give consideration, in assessing whether content is harmful, to the risk that its dissemination could have a physical or psychological impact on a child or an adult, and must ensure its community rules specify how children will be protected from harmful content they may encounter.

The Code does not itself prescribe an age-verification mechanism, and non-compliance is stated to be a breach of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003, the National Broadcasting Commission Act, 2004, and the NITDA Act, 2007, rather than a penalty set out in the Code itself.

Enforcement bodyNational Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission and the National Broadcasting Commission

Source: Full text of law