New Bill seeks to regulate content for minors, impose Ksh.500M on non-compliant providers

The Online Safety Bill 2026, tabled by Embakasi West Member of Parliament (MP) Mark Mwenje, seeks to impose strict measures to protect children from consuming illegal content while empowering the Communications Authority of Kenya to monitor and enforce compliance.

The Bill proposes that under-18 users must obtain a parent's consent to access any online service or social media platform.

It also empowers a parent to withdraw consent at any time, and the provider shall, upon withdrawal, restrict the child's access to the service within such period as may be prescribed.

"A parent or a person who exercises parental responsibility shall be responsible for giving or withholding consent to the access to, or use of, a regulated service by a child, having regard to the age, maturity and best interests of the child," it states.

A provider will be required to use age verification or age estimation measures to determine whether a user is a child and apply necessary steps to verify that the consent is given by a person who has parental responsibility for the child.

Communications Authority will also be granted power to issue a compliance notice if it has reasonable grounds to believe that a provider has failed to comply with regulations.

"A compliance notice shall specify the provision of this Act alleged to have been breached, the facts constituting the breach, the measures required to remedy the breach, and the period within which the measures shall be implemented," the Bill reads in part.

Providers who fail to comply with a duty of care imposed under the Bill will be liable to a fine not exceeding Ksh.500 million or 10% of their annual turnover.

"Where an offence under this section is committed with the consent or connivance of, or is attributable to any gross negligence on the part of, a senior executive officer of the provider, that officer commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding ten million shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or to both," the Bill added.

The Bill applies regulations on offences under the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and offences relating to child sexual abuse material.