Bamidele Kolawole

Law can be defined as the rules and regulations that regulate the attitude, conduct and behaviour of a particular people at a particular time. It is the violation of any of those laws that results into crime, without these rules there cannot be offence.

Law can regulate cyberspace. Over the years, the National Assembly have enacted series of legislations with regulatory bodies to administer these laws in the course of administering the cyberspace.

 For example, the EFCC Act is the umbrella for laws regulating the financial crimes which have over the years, metamorphosed into a cyber space crime.

The Advance Fee Fraud and other a Related Offences Act, 2006 is another legislation in this regards.

It was enacted by the National Assembly as an extension of the popular section, “419”, of the Criminal Code to address the inadequacies occasioned in the application of section 419 especially with the global scientific revolution and evolution of sophisticated cybercrimes.

 To give life to these legislations and enhance their admissibility in the Court, the Evidence Act, 2011 in section 84 has provided the condition precedent for the admissibility of computer generated evidence which is most often, the only evidence that could be obtain given the shredded nature of evidence typical in these offences.

Cyberspace is a process of the internet for different activities through computers, mobile phones etc.

In 2015, Nigeria enacted a law regulating all activities on the internet which is referred to as Cuber crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015.

The Act provides adequate regulations for cyberspace in Nigeria. For Part III of the Act, it covers different offences and penalties. Part IV covers the duties of financial institutions and Part V deals with Administration and Enforcement.

The Act and other related statutes like Data Protection Act 2023 regulate the cyberspace in Nigeria.

As science and technology advances, knowledge increases and the rate of criminality in the cyberspace grows day by day.

Although, cyberspace had impacted the world positively. Notwithstanding, it has become a hub for people to still perpetuate crimes. In a bid to protect the cyberspace and reduce crime in the Cyberspace, the government saw the need to promulgate laws that will help preserve the cyber space.

 First and foremost, what is “Cyber space” . Cyber space is defined according to the oxford dictionary as “an imaginary place where electronic messages exist while they are being sent between computers”

However, the growing menace of Cyber related crimes like spanning, credit card frauds, ATM frauds, phishing, identity theft in Nigeria began to tarnish the image of the country and hampered the relationship of the country with the global community.

  Prominent provisions of the Act is Section 24 which prohibits Cyber stalking (which involves the use of computer to send pornographies) and prescribes the punishment for it. While Section 25 prescribes the punishment for Cyber squatting.

Law can be defined as the rules and regulations that regulate the attitude, conduct and behaviour of a particular people at a particular time. It is the violation of any of those laws that results into crime, without these rules there cannot be offence.

Prof. John W. Salmond defines law as the body of principles recognized and applied by the state in the administration of justice.

Law means justice, morality, reason, order, and righteous from the view point of the society. Therefore, law is a broader term which includes Acts, Statutes, Rules, Regulations, Orders, Ordinances, Justice, Morality, Rules of court, Decrees, Judgement, Orders of courts, Injunctions, Tort, Jurisprudence, legal theory, etc.

The absence of law will bring about a state of anarchy, that is; lawlessness, total breakdown of the law. Law is meant to provide a platform which is lawful for the operation (modus operandi) of any organization or set of people having things in common.

The Cyber refers to the technology that includes systems, networks, programs, and data. And security is concerned with the protection of systems, networks, applications, and information. In some cases, it is also called electronic information security or information technology security.

Cyber is a prefix that denotes a relationship with Information Technology (IT). Anything relating to computing, such as the internet, falls under the cyber category. It’s worth noting cyber carries a connotation of a relationship with modern computing and technology.

If cyberspace is not regulated by law, the crime rate will be so high. Cyberspace refers to the virtual computer world, and more specifically, an electronic medium that is used to facilitate online communication. For example, sending of an E-mail makes use of cyber space.

Section 1(a) of the Cybercrime Act states expressly that the objective of the Act is to provide an effective and unified legal, regulatory and institutional framework for the prohibition, prevention, detection, prosecution and punishment of cybercrimes in Nigeria.

Flowing from the Section 1 (a) of the Cybercrime Act, it becomes obvious that there is the regulation of law put in place to control and regulate the activities of cyberspace, from our definition early provided in paragraph three above, we defined law as an Act, so we can say as well that Cybercrime Law.

If it is not regulated, there will be mass crimes performed in the cyberspace, eventually; this will disappoint the purpose of cyber space.

The field provides for experts so as to help check mate the rate of cybercrimes and these set of people are referred to as cyber security experts or specialists.

Every human society, endeavors, interactions and relationships are surely to be regulated by the Law. We all know as a matter of irrefutable fact that Law is the instrument by which human societies are shaped.
The CyberSpace is not an exception, in fact, it is no gainsaying that the Cyberspace is the biggest rendezvous of human interaction, the human traffic in CyberSpace on daily basis can’t be less than 1 billion, even though it isn’t tangible to human touch because it has to do with Information Technology ( IT).
In Nigeria, the IT(Information Technology) ACT 2000 is the Legislative instrument in place to regulate Cyberspace.
Without the necessary Laws in place, it will be difficult for both Cyberspace Operators and Practitioners to function without serious challenge, even with different Laws, both locally and internationally, put in place by the Government’s across the world, there are still challenges confronting Players in the CyberSpace sector, and the reason is, in my opinion based on the fact that Cyberspace is all about Information Technology, and this, you will agree with me, is a dynamic knowledge based vocation.
Cyberspace Laws are what both consumers and operators rely upon to protect them and to safeguard against the various challenges such as identity theft, credit card theft and many more complex crimes in the Cyber world.
Very well, Yes, Law can and indeed regulating Cyberspace and all Allied Cyberspace related activities, otherwise the various types of trespassing and encroaching going on in the Cyber world could have gone out of hand.

Cyberspace is a concept describing a widespread of interconnected digital technology. It is simply a space where cyber users interact, share and read information electronically.

 In order to prevent cyber users abuse, the cyberspace is regulated by bodies of rules that controls its usage and every activity by internet users. These sets or rules are known as cyber laws which are often times formulated by the government to promote the legal usage of cyberspace.

These laws often times backed up with sanctions. The Nigerian government has been working tirelessly to curtail the effects of cyber related offences.

 Some of the sections of the Act includes sections criminalizing offences such as; cyber terrorism, child pornography, racist and xenophobic offences, manipulation of ATM/POS terminals, electronic cards and related fraud, spreading of computer virus, breach of confidence by service providers etc.

According to the Nigerian Communication Commission, cybercrime may generally be regarded as criminal offence involving a computer as the object of the crime (hacking, phishing, spamming), or as a tool to commit a material component of a crime (child pornography, hate crimes, computer fraud).

In Nigeria, government agencies such as Nigerian Communication Commission, The Nigeria Police, The Economic Financial Crime Commission have been working tirelessly to curtail the crimes being perpetrated by cyber users.