Samoa

National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-07

Samoa has no social-media minor-access restriction, app-store age-verification requirement, or age-appropriate design code.

Adult content is instead regulated through the Film Control Act 1978, a licensing and classification regime under which the Film Control Board licenses exhibitors, including internet or other computer-based suppliers, and lenders of films, and the Principal Censor classifies a film for general exhibition or restricts it to persons of or over a specified age, with it an offence to exhibit a film contrary to its classification.

The Crimes Act 2013 separately criminalises publishing, distributing, or exhibiting indecent material on a child and possessing or accessing child pornography, but that provision is a general child-protection offence rather than a duty to verify a user's age or gate access to an online service, so it is not recorded as an instrument on this topic.

01

Instruments on record

Film Control Act 1978, exhibitor and lender licensing and film classification

In force

Film Control Act 1978, No. 26 (Samoa)

Effective 1979-10-12 · Applies to both

Section 10 requires a person to hold a licence from the Film Control Board before exhibiting or lending a film, and section 10(3) lets the Board determine licence classes for exhibitors including broadcast, cable or satellite television service providers, picture theatres, educational institutions, and internet or other computer-based suppliers.

Section 19 requires the Principal Censor, on approving a film for public exhibition, to classify it either for general exhibition or for exhibition restricted to a specified class of persons only, being persons of or over the age of 5 years, or for specified purposes or occasions only, and section 19(2) bars exhibiting a film contrary to that classification.

Section 3A makes the Act binding on the Government, and section 21 requires the owner, manager, or occupier of exhibition premises to display the Principal Censor's certificate notifying the public of the film's classification.

Enforcement bodyFilm Control Board and Principal Censor

Source: Full text of law