Online Sexual Abuse of Children in Nigeria

The advent of technology has brought about unprecedented opportunities for communication and access to information which has helped in professional skills development, fostering learning, research and creativity. It has also created an avenue for criminals to exploit the ‘vulnerable’ in the society, particularly the children; thus, making the cyber space unconducive for them. This paper examines the legal protection of children against online sexual exploitation and abuse in Nigeria. It identifies the various types of online child sexual abuse, examines the legal framework for the protection of children against online sexual abuse, pinpoints the challenges associated with the legal framework and proffers durable solutions that will help tackle the exponential growth in online child sexual abuse in Nigeria. This paper adopts a mixed method research design and finds that there is significant increase in online child sexual abuse in Nigeria in spite of the laws and institutions in place to address this problem. Additionally, it is revealed that the legal framework for the protection of children against online child sexual abuse in Nigeria is fraught with deficiencies. The paper concludes that Nigeria owes the obligation to protect its children from online child sexual abuse and needs to take proactive steps to ensure this. The paper recommends that measures be taken to ensure that perpetrators of the heinous crime of online child sexual abuse are brought to book to serve as deterrents to others in the society.