0
ABUJA – Child rights advocates have urged the National Assembly to urgently pass the Bill for an Act to establish the Child Online Access Protection and Online Violence Against Nigerian Children, as well as other related matters, warning that millions of Nigerian children remain exposed to escalating online risks.
The call was made on Friday in Abuja during a stakeholders’ roundtable convened to examine growing concerns around children’s safety in digital spaces and the adequacy of existing legal safeguards.
The advocates noted that the rapid expansion of internet access among children, while beneficial for education and communication, has also intensified exposure to cyberbullying, online grooming, sextortion, cyber extortion, and other forms of digital exploitation.
They cited a 2018 UNICEF report which stated that globally, a new child comes online every half a second, underscoring the scale of exposure to digital environments.
The report further indicated that in Nigeria, approximately 90 per cent of children are at risk of online harm, including exposure to inappropriate content, harassment, and exploitation.
The proposed legislation includes provisions aimed at strengthening child online safety and establishing clearer accountability mechanisms for digital service providers.
It also proposes a 0.02 per cent levy on the assessable profit of search engines, telecommunications companies, artificial intelligence firms, gaming platforms, streaming services, and social media application vendors operating in Nigeria, to support enforcement and implementation.
Speaking at the roundtable, the Country Director of Lawyers Without Borders in Nigeria, Ms Angela Uzoma, said the bill is critical to addressing the realities of children’s exposure to digital threats in the country.
She noted that widespread access to digital devices among children has made the legislation both timely and necessary.
“So every Nigerian, whether you are a biological parent or not, whether you are an aunt or an uncle, whether you are a child or an adult, you should be interested and should support this bill,” she said.
Uzoma warned that children are increasingly vulnerable to a range of online harms, including grooming, sexual exploitation, and sextortion, often perpetrated by individuals posing as minors to gain trust.
“We have children being groomed; we have children being threatened online. We have predators pretending to be children and targeting children,” she added.
Also speaking, Ms Christiana Eguma, Coordinator of the General Unit in the National Assembly, said the bill is designed to strengthen online safety frameworks for children in the digital age.
She explained that many children access the internet without adequate supervision, a situation that heightens their exposure to harmful content and online abuse.
Eguma added that the legislation seeks to place responsibility on digital platforms to act swiftly in removing harmful content and preventing abuse.
“It puts accountability on the platforms themselves so that they can take responsibility for taking down this negative content early enough,” she said.
According to her, the bill also promotes shared responsibility among parents, schools, and society in safeguarding children from online threats.
“It seeks to ensure that from the parents to the school, to the children, everybody is responsible enough to protect children online,” she said.
An educator, Oluwasesan Ifegbesan, also called for collective action, stressing the need for parents and guardians to be more vigilant in guiding children’s use of digital devices and social media platforms.
