A live programme strengthening Nigeria’s institutional and legal response to online child protection — from regulatory capacity and judicial interpretation to accountability for the technology companies shaping children’s digital lives.
Context and rationale
Digital technologies have become central to learning, communication and play for children in Nigeria. Yet these same platforms expose them to serious risks: exploitation, sexual grooming, cyberbullying, misinformation and data harvesting. Children’s data are collected, profiled and monetised by powerful technology companies whose opaque algorithms and weak safeguards have turned the digital environment into an unregulated market of attention and vulnerability.
While Nigeria’s Data Protection Act 2023 provides a basic framework for privacy, it offers limited protection for children and is poorly enforced. Tech companies face few incentives or sanctions to ensure digital safety, ethical design or responsible content moderation. This governance vacuum leaves children unprotected and parents powerless. The result is a silent epidemic of digital exploitation: exposure to harmful content, manipulative advertising and unconsented data use, often without legal recourse or the institutional capacity to respond.
Goal
The Justice Research Institute Limited by Guarantee (JRI) seeks to establish a Child Digital Rights and Safeguarding Initiative to strengthen Nigeria’s institutional and legal response to online child protection. The programme will assess the adequacy of Nigeria’s current frameworks, promote judicial and regulatory capacity to enforce children’s digital rights, and advance accountability mechanisms for big technology companies operating in Nigeria.
Objectives
- 01Develop a national framework for safeguarding children’s rights online, grounded in human rights and the constitutional principles of dignity and equality.
- 02Strengthen judicial and regulatory capacity to identify, interpret and respond to digital harms affecting minors.
- 03Promote accountability for technology companies through evidence-based policy advocacy and strategic litigation on data misuse and digital exploitation.
- 04Raise public awareness through youth-led and community-driven campaigns that demystify digital harms and promote responsible digital citizenship.
Approach
Drawing on JRI’s People-Centred Justice (PCJ) model, the initiative unites high-level policy engagement with community participation. It will convene judges, regulators, educators and child protection advocates to design contextually relevant safeguards, build a jurisprudential framework for children’s digital rights, and deploy digital tools for monitoring harmful content and violations.
Expected outcomes
- 01A draft Children’s Digital Rights and Safeguarding Framework for Nigeria.
- 02Strengthened capacity of regulators, courts and educators to address online exploitation.
- 03Public advocacy and campaigns to promote responsible tech design and informed digital use.
- 04Emerging jurisprudence establishing platform accountability and corporate responsibility for online harms to minors.
Supported by the Luminate Foundation.
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