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Legal experts, religious leaders and child rights advocates have called for stronger child protection laws, improved digital literacy and increased government investment in education to protect Nigerian children from cyberbullying, online exploitation and other dangers associated with digital technology.
They made the call at the second National Child Rights Summit held at the ASUU Secretariat, Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, Anambra State, last week.
The summit, themed, “Harnessing Digital Technologies for Child Protection and Empowerment in Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges,” brought together academics, policymakers, religious leaders and child rights advocates to examine how technology could promote children’s development while protecting them from online abuse.
Welcoming participants, the Vice-Chancellor of UNIZIK, Prof. Ugochukwu Bond Anyaehie, said digital technology had transformed how children learn, communicate and innovate, creating new opportunities for remote education, creative expression, youth advocacy and skills acquisition.
However, he warned that increased digital connectivity had also exposed children to cyberbullying, online exploitation, harmful content, data privacy breaches and exclusion arising from socioeconomic inequalities.
Anyaehie said protecting children while ensuring equitable access to digital opportunities required urgent and coordinated action by government, educational institutions, technology developers, parents and other stakeholders.
He emphasised the critical role of universities in generating evidence-based research on child digital safety, developing local technological solutions to curb abuse and collaborating with policymakers to update existing legal frameworks, including the Child Rights Act, to address emerging challenges in the digital age.
The vice-chancellor urged governments to enforce robust digital safety legislation, technology developers to incorporate child safety into the design of digital platforms, and parents and educators to strengthen children’s digital literacy.
Delivering the lead paper, the Vice-Chancellor of Imo State University, Owerri, Prof. U. U. Chukwumaeze, SAN, said existing legal frameworks in Nigeria and South Africa had not adequately addressed the opportunities and risks associated with children’s growing exposure to digital technology.
He called for amendments to existing child protection laws to address emerging threats in the digital environment, noting that legislation must evolve alongside technological developments.
Chukwumaeze observed that although Nigeria’s Child Rights Act, 2003, and other relevant laws provide safeguards for children, they were largely developed without sufficient consideration of contemporary digital challenges.
He also identified the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, as an important legal instrument for protecting children’s personal information, including photographs, biometric details, addresses and other sensitive data.
According to him, the increasing collection and processing of children’s personal information by digital platforms make stronger safeguards and responsible data management imperative.
The professor further decried inadequate funding of public primary and junior secondary schools, warning that unequal access to computers, internet facilities and digital learning resources could widen the gap between children from wealthy and poor households.
He urged governments to prioritise basic education funding and ensure that children from disadvantaged communities were not excluded from opportunities offered by digital technology.
In his keynote address, the Catholic Bishop of Makurdi, Most Rev. Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe, said protecting children in the digital age required a coordinated approach involving government, schools, parents, technology companies, universities, religious institutions and civil society organisations.
Anagbe argued that the objective should not be to keep children away from technology but to equip them with the knowledge, judgment and resilience to use it safely and productively.
He noted that digital platforms had expanded access to educational resources, creative opportunities and skills development, enabling children in rural communities to access learning materials previously beyond their reach.
However, he warned that the same platforms exposed children to cyberbullying, online grooming, sexual exploitation, identity theft, privacy violations, misinformation and harmful content.
The bishop also raised concerns about emerging risks associated with artificial intelligence, including deepfakes, impersonation, discriminatory algorithms and inappropriate AI-generated content. He called for child-centred AI policies that would make children’s safety and rights central to technological innovation.
Anagbe urged schools to incorporate digital safety into their child protection policies, train teachers to identify online abuse and establish accessible reporting and referral mechanisms for affected children.
He also encouraged parents to adopt open communication with their children, stressing that children were more likely to report abuse when they trusted adults to listen without immediately punishing them.
Beyond online safety, Anagbe stressed that child protection must address poverty, insecurity, displacement and inadequate access to education and healthcare.
He said government commitments to children’s rights must be backed by adequate funding, effective institutions and measurable accountability mechanisms.
“The Nigerian child is not merely the future of Nigeria. The Nigerian child is the present responsibility of Nigeria,” he said.
The speakers urged stakeholders to move beyond declarations to concrete actions, including stronger legislation, evidence-based research, improved digital infrastructure and sustained collaboration to ensure that every child could learn, participate and develop safely in the digital age.
