The disclosure is directed to providing content access control in information centric networking (ICN) networks. Methods and systems include hardware and/or software that perform operations for sending to a content provider of an ICN network an access request for content in response to receiving a first content request from a client. The operations also include receiving from the content provider access control information for the content. The operations further include sending to the client a challenge. Additionally, the operations include receiving from the client an authorization of the content provider that includes information obtained by the client from the content provider based on the challenge. Furthermore, the operations include verifying the authorization received from the client using the access control information received from the content provider. Moreover, the operations include sending to the client the content.