The Federal Government is developing a National Strategy on Child Online Protection (COP) to make the internet a safer space for children and adolescents in Nigeria.
The Communications and Digital Economy says the plan aligns with the global advocacy for protecting children online promoted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN specialised agency that administers programmes to aid education and child and maternal health in developing countries.
Under the plan, Professor Isa Pantami, Communications and Digital Economy Minister, has inaugurated the National Committee on the Development of a Unified National Strategy on Child Online Protection (COP) in Nigeria.
UNICEF says that protecting children in a digital world, while at the same time unlocking opportunities for them to learn and to express themselves, “is a major challenge of our time.”
UNICEF
‘Why Child Online Protection Matter’
The move, the Minister says, is “aimed at developing a National Strategy on Child Online Protection (COP) in Nigeria is in alignment with global best practices as identified by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in a recent policy brief and guidelines issued in 2020.
Members of the Committee were drawn from the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy; Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development; Federal Ministry of Justice; Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC); National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA); the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP); Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON); Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN); and Network Against Scam and Cyber Crime.
UNICEF says that protecting children in a digital world, while at the same time unlocking opportunities for them to learn and to express themselves, “is a major challenge of our time.”
The UN agency says that it “supports the safe engagement of children online, but equally recognizes that digital technology can also increase children’s exposure to harmful material, unacceptable behaviour and potentially dangerous contacts, both online and offline.”
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