UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Protecting the Digital Child: Nigeria’s Child Online Access Protection Bill and the EU GDPR

Identification

Public canonical key

doi:10.21776/ub.arenahukum2026.01902.7

Authors

Abubakar Muhammad Jibril · Ramesh Singh

Reported year

2026

Reported language

en

Source type

article

First detected

2026-11-09T19:04:47.716974+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-09T19:04:47.716974+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Islamic University of Niger · Rayat Bahra University

Reported affiliation countries

IN · NE

Documentary abstract — original language

Rapidly expanding digital technologies have led to urgent legal challenges, increasing children’s exposure to algorithmic harm, cyber-grooming, harmful content, and data exploitation. This study examines how Nigeria’s Child Online Access Protection Bill (HB 244), passed by the National Assembly, proposes to address these risks and how its approach compares with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and its child-specific provisions, referred to in this study as GDPR-K. Existing studies have examined children’s digital privacy and the GDPR, but have paid little attention to Nigeria’s emerging legislative framework and its implications for constitutional privacy and digital child protection. The study aims to identify regulatory convergence and divergence between the two frameworks and assess the implications of the Nigerian approach. Employing a comparative doctrinal legal methodology, the study analyses HB 244, the GDPR, the Nigerian Constitution, and relevant legal studies. The findings indicate that the Nigerian framework adopts child-centred safeguards, including privacy-oriented design, parental involvement, and stronger platform responsibilities, while departing from the EU model through a uniform eighteen-year digital consent threshold and a shared-responsibility approach conceptualised as “Communal Guardianship.” The study concludes that HB 244 offers a distinctive Global South perspective on child online protection but requires privacy-preserving age verification, institutional capacity, and cross-border cooperation. It contributes to comparative digital-rights scholarship by demonstrating how emerging economies may adapt international child-protection principles to their constitutional and socio-legal contexts.

Identifiers

OPENALEX

W7214576451

DOI

10.21776/ub.arenahukum2026.01902.7

Documentary context

Documentary family

Scholarship

Source-reported types

article

Jurisdictions studied — explicit sources

NG

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.21776/ub.arenahukum2026.01902.7
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W7214576451

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

• openalex:w2613711491 · CITES
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• openalex:w3013559310 · CITES
• openalex:w4207014927 · CITES
• openalex:w4309729738 · CITES
• openalex:w4313402850 · CITES
• openalex:w4322618687 · CITES
• openalex:w4365151856 · CITES
• openalex:w4386030614 · CITES
• openalex:w4387366362 · CITES
• openalex:w4391210538 · CITES
• openalex:w4399673189 · CITES
• openalex:w4407227007 · CITES
• openalex:w4411728043 · CITES
• openalex:w4413820726 · CITES

0 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

This identity is not yet included in the Legal Library.