Social media platforms face tougher child-protection rules under Kenya's proposed Online Safety Bill
Social media companies operating in Kenya could face fines of up to KSh500 million or 10% of their annual global turnover for failing to meet proposed child-protection requirements. The penalty is part of the Kenya Online Safety Bill 2026, introduced by Embakasi West MP Mark Mwenje, which would require platforms to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent before allowing children under 18 to access their services.
The proposed financial penalties also extend to company leadership. Senior executives involved in non-compliance could face fines of up to KSh10 million, imprisonment for up to five years, or both. The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) would oversee enforcement, with providers entitled to notification and a hearing before civil penalties are imposed.
The Bill places Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, X and TikTok among the services covered by its proposed requirements. For these companies, compliance would involve establishing whether a user is below 18 and confirming that the person authorising access has parental responsibility.
Age verification becomes a central compliance requirement
Providers would have to deploy highly effective age verification or age estimation systems to determine whether someone using their services is a child. The Bill also proposes several methods for confirming parental responsibility, including credit card verification, cross-referencing a parent’s identity and decentralised digital identity verification. The CA could approve other verification methods.
This would make age assurance part of the process through which platforms grant access to accounts. A parent or guardian would be able to withdraw consent, after which the provider would have to restrict the child’s access within a prescribed period.
The proposed requirements come against a record of existing platform enforcement activity in Kenya. TikTok reported removing 884,591 videos in the country during the first quarter of 2026, with 99.7% removed proactively before users reported them. The company also reported taking down 48,739 accounts suspected of belonging to users under 13 and interrupting 103,847 LIVE rooms.
Those figures illustrate the scale of moderation and age-related enforcement activity reported by TikTok. The Online Safety Bill would add a distinct obligation by requiring platforms to obtain parental authorisation for users below 18, extending the proposed controls beyond the removal of accounts suspected of belonging to children under 13.
Kenya’s regulatory attention extends beyond content moderation
The proposal follows parliamentary scrutiny of TikTok. In February 2026, Parliament’s Public Petitions Committee recommended stronger regulation of the platform rather than an outright ban, calling for measures that included age verification, periodic compliance reviews by the CA and engagement between platforms and the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.
In May 2026, ICT Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo also called on X to establish a local office in Kenya to support government engagement on harmful content and child protection. These developments have placed platform accountability and the ability of Kenyan authorities to engage technology companies within the country’s regulatory agenda.
Another legislative proposal addresses wider platform obligations. The Kenya Information and Communications Amendment Bill 2026 proposes requirements covering platform registration, reporting unlawful activity and remedial action, and establishing complaint-handling mechanisms. The Online Safety Bill is separate, concentrating on children’s access to social media and the authorisation required from parents or guardians.
Children’s online activity adds context to the proposal
A Kaspersky analysis covering the first eight months of 2026 identified YouTube, YouTube Kids and TikTok as prominent applications in children’s observed online activity in Kenya. The company’s figures put YouTube at 23.5% of observed application activity, while YouTube Kids and TikTok each accounted for 17%.
Kaspersky also identified grooming, phishing, cyberbullying and the manipulation of children’s images and videos using generative AI among the risks facing young internet users. The Bill addresses some of the content-related concerns by identifying pornography, material encouraging suicide or deliberate self-harm, eating disorders, dangerous stunts and online challenges as harmful to children.
Under the proposal, parents and guardians would be responsible for guiding children’s safe internet use and supervising their online activity according to age and maturity. They would also be expected to report suspected online abuse and exploitation to the relevant platform, the CA, the National Council for Children Services or the National Police Service.
The Bill would not make parents liable merely because a child accessed harmful content or participated in harmful online activity. Its proposed responsibilities instead focus on supervision, guidance and reporting, while the platform obligations centre on access controls and age verification.
How other countries approach parental consent
The proposed Kenyan threshold is higher than the age limits cited in several European countries. France requires parental consent for children under 15, while Germany’s rules cover minors aged 13 to 16. Italy requires parental approval for children below 14.
Kenya’s proposal would apply parental consent requirements to everyone under 18 using the covered services. The Bill therefore places the responsibility for establishing a child’s age and obtaining authorisation on social media providers, with the CA responsible for enforcement.
The country’s earlier child-safety initiatives have also involved cooperation between regulators and industry. In 2021, the CA, Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom Kenya, Jamii Telecom and GSMA worked together on a portal providing online safety guidance for children. The proposed legislation would add statutory obligations for social media companies to that existing child-protection effort.
For platforms covered by the Bill, the proposed compliance framework would bring together age assessment, parental identity verification, consent management and restrictions on access after consent is withdrawn. Companies that fail to meet those requirements could face financial penalties, while executives involved in non-compliance could also face personal legal consequences.
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