Legislating for Cyberspace: Challenges for the Nigerian Legislature

Abstract

The need to make proper legislations governing interactions in the world of technology is a contemporary issue and several nations across the globe have made serious efforts at legislating for cyberspace. Nigeria as an emerging international market and a continental leader is capable of profiting in cyberspace but has not made serious attempts at legislating for interactions therein, thus the possibility of abuse of the infrastructure is largely open. This article argues that the Nigerian legislature should make adequate legislations to govern interactions in cyberspace and attempts to point out the challenges that the legislature should advert its mind to in the course of doing same. It also attempts to draw lessons from some other jurisdictions. In discussing the challenges, this article considered issues like personal jurisdiction in cyberspace, the default state of anonymity, the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech, the threat of cybercrime and the need to strike a balance between data protection and freedom of information. The article concludes that though legislating for cyberspace may not be easy, laws must be made to govern it since online interactions have impacts in the real world.