Children enjoying views from Laptop
When Mr. Omolaja Adebukola and his wife decided to buy Bimbo, their 14-year-old-daughter an Internet-enabled mobile smartphone, it was to enable her to communicate seamlessly with other members of the family, whenever the need arose.
According to Bimbo’s mother, the mobile phone was also to enable them (parents) to keep track of, or keep abreast of the movement of Bimbo and their other young daughters, as well as aid Bimbo in solving school assignments that required her going online for confirmations and verifications.
While all these purposes were well served, the teenager decided to deploy the gadget for other spine-chilling purposes. With the help of her like-minded classmates, she downloaded a decoy “calculator” app, which served as a “warehouse” for hordes of x-rated content that she downloaded from the Internet.
In her spare time, and when the coast was clear, she devoured the pornographic materials with gusto. This went on for a long while before an eye-eyed married woman in her residence spotted her during one of her binging sessions.
Upon threats of being reported to her father, Bimbo swiftly opened the pass-worded “calculator” to reveal a strong cache of x-rated movies and other creeping contents that were far from being age-appropriate.
Disturbed by the revelation, the neighbour reported Bimbo to her mother, who nearly jumped out of her skin over the shocking revelation. A further scrutiny of Bimbo’s browsing history revealed that she picked up the ugly pastime shortly after she was gifted the mobile handset.
Promptly, all the videos were deleted from her mobile phone, which was also seized from her as a punishment.
It was not the intent of Bimbo’s parents to damage their daughter’s innocence or expose her to an entire digital landscape where the good, the bad, and the ugly go on pari passu, but that was exactly what inadvertently happened.
Like the Adebukolas, a mother of three teenagers, who prefers to be identified as Mrs. Angela E.D. suffered the same fate after her 15-year-old daughter strayed into the arms of perverts online, who caused the young girl to go berserk and throw caution to the wind.
Angela, a businesswoman and an avid Internet user is deeply bothered by the epidemic that allowing children unfettered access to the Internet, by many parents has become, stressing that many of them may not be as lucky as she was in arresting the situation before it totally got out of hand.
“I know the value of Internet connectivity to both business and scholarship, so it was not a difficult thing to equip my children’s rooms with television and Internet-enabled computer sets to enhance their learning.
“Of course, I never suspected that things could go the way that they did until one of my daughters’ teachers started complaining that my eldest daughter was sleeping off during classes. The first thing that I did was to remove the television set from the room so that she could sleep well, but the problem persisted.
“Bent on getting to the root of the matter, I mounted a secret camera in the room. It was then that I found out that my daughter spends two to three hours averagely on the Internet, at night, chatting with her friends, young boys and men across the world.
“Upon tracing her digital footprints, I further found out that she was also watching x-rated clips daily. But the one that shocked me to the marrow was her sending her almost nude photos to at least one schoolmate, and two older fellows living abroad.”
According to her: “I nearly ran mad that my 15-year-old daughter could get so low. I immediately enlisted her for a therapy, where she was thoroughly debriefed. At home, she was dispossessed of digital devices and barred access to the Internet completely for a long while before being granted limited time under watchful eyes. I consider myself lucky that she was found out before she went completely haywire.”
Across the country, the growing incidents of young persons falling victim to trending cybercrimes, including online identity theft, cyberbullying, cyber-stalking, phishing, and even paedophiles and sex predators is reflective of parents’ increasing lack of awareness regarding the proliferation of these online crimes, which may not abate any time soon.
Burgeoning clan of children online
Eleven years after it passed seven million, the world population climbed to eight million on November 15, 2022. As of Friday, August 25, 2023, it officially stood at 8,056,340,308 according to the most recent United Nations estimates elaborated by Worldometer. Of this number, around 6.3 billion of people have an online presence, a sizable number being children.
According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), well over one billion children attended online classes during the outbreak of the dreaded Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), which occasioned lockdowns of schools, and most cities across the globe.
Since coming online, a good number of these schoolchildren and sundry young persons have not gone off cyberspace, nor do they intend to beat a retreat anytime soon principally because of the exciting features that cyberspace harbours.
While they savour the many benefits offered by the Internet because of their sheer exuberance and spirit of adventure, a sizeable part of them is not able to differentiate between what is beneficial, and what is harmful to them until it is sometimes a bit too late.
Matters are not helped by the fact that many Nigerian parents, guardians, caregivers, and teachers are bereft of appropriate skills and competencies to either shepherd their children effectively in the digital environment when they carry out their schoolwork or adequately support their digital practices and opportunities. Expectedly, the absence of appropriate checks, experts maintain, exposes them to risks like access to pornography, online grooming, and identity issues.
In a research work titled, “A Child-centered Study Of Teens’ Digital Life Worlds From a Nigerian Perspective,” Chikezie Uzuegbunam, explained: “Young people attach great relevance to digital technologies for schoolwork and quick access to general and specialised information and news – much more than they do with the old or legacy media and books. Digital technologies such as mobile phones are appropriated in the domestic setting as tools for childminding, child monitoring, and emergency control between and amongst Nigerian teens and their parents, guardians, and older relatives.
“Digital technologies such as mobile phones and the Internet support Nigerian teens in self-learning or informal learning. However, teens’ appropriation of technology for personal development and self-learning seems gendered and classed, as the use of digital technologies for this purpose is mainly by privileged male children in urban cities, much more than females and those who live in rural or even peri-urban areas.
“Nigerian teens’ social connectivity indicated that they rely extensively on the mobile phone and the mobile Internet to communicate, stay connected, share, and feel a part of a social group. Mobile phones provide a dependable means for seamless communication and accomplishment of communicative goals like making plans, asking for and offering help, and reducing the cost and stress of friendship. Furthermore, young people’s social connectivity is enhanced through social networks, mainly Facebook, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. The importance of social connection is such that social media is a decisive factor for children’s happiness, relief from stress and boredom, and for managing their mental health,” he submitted.
Uzuegbunam findings were corroborated by the 2020 Child Online Safety Index report, which noted that Nigerian children were on the verge of addiction disorder as their screen time rose to 10 hours, and that most of them are active on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
The safety index report further revealed that Nigerian children spend an unduly long time engaged in digital technology daily through watching television, playing video games, or surfing the Internet. The Nigerian child on average can amass screen time for lengths of up to three hours per day. In extreme cases, some of them clock up to 10 hours or more screen time per day indicating higher levels of disordered use of technology among them.
That report placed the country sixth from the bottom of the list of 30 peer countries.
The rating is based on four indices – the severity of gaming disorder symptoms; the percentage of children at risk of gaming disorder; the severity of social media disorder symptoms, and the percentage of children at risk for social media disorder.
Embrace benefits of technology, protect children’s innocence.
Senior lecturer, and educational psychologist at the University of Calabar, Dr. Achi Ndifon Bekomson, is worried by the addictive nature of smartphones and the negative impact of excessive screen time on physical health and academic performance of children. She, therefore, says that while there is a need to embrace technology, children’s innocence must also be preserved.
According to her: “As a parent, my primary concern is the safety, and well-being of my children. In today’s digital age, I believe it’s crucial to strike a balance between providing access to technology and protecting the innocence of our children. While smartphones and Internet-enabled devices offer numerous benefits, such as access to information and improved communication, they also come with significant risks. I’ve chosen not to provide my 10-year-old child with an Android phone for several reasons. First and foremost, I’m concerned about the potential dangers associated with unrestricted access to the Internet. The online world contains a vast array of content, some of which may not be suitable for a teenager’s age and maturity level. I want to shield my child from exposure to explicit or harmful material that he might stumble upon unintentionally. So, I provided a landline for communication and a laptop that I control for his academic work. By limiting their access to a laptop for specific purposes, I can encourage a healthier balance between screen time and other activities.
“Another concern is the prevalence of social media and the risk of cyber-bullying. Social platforms can be breeding grounds for negativity and harmful behaviours, and I want to protect my children from such experiences until they are better equipped to handle them emotionally. Privacy is also a significant concern. Adolescents may not fully grasp the importance of safeguarding personal information online, potentially putting themselves at risk. By providing a landline for calls and a laptop for reading and research, I can monitor and guide their online activities more effectively,” she said.
Bekomson
Harping on the dangers of leaving children unchecked on the Internet, Bekomson, a psychological counselor said such a decision is fraught with a high dose of danger, including exposing them to risky and harmful content and information or discussions around drugs, self-harm, promiscuity, and other sensitive topics. “The degree of risk can vary based on the child’s age, maturity, and the specific websites or platforms that they access. An overview of the risks includes access to harmful content on sites that promote or glamorise harmful behaviours, including drug use, self-harm, or risky sexual activities.
Exposure to such content may normalize these behaviors in a child’s mind, leading to potential experimentation or misunderstanding of real-world consequences. Content related to self-harm or suicide can be distressing and may negatively affect a child’s mental health, potentially leading to harmful thoughts or actions. Additionally, children left unchecked on the internet can share personal information that could put them at risk of being targeted by online predators or cyberbullies. They may be coerced or pressured into sending nude photos or explicit messages, leading them to engage in “sexting,” a vice they wouldn’t otherwise participate in. Another thing that may happen is that these bullies may share children’s private sexual content online, leading to public humiliation that could negatively impact their self-esteem, and cause them to seek validation through risky sexual behaviours, or turn to online relationships for companionship, that may further expose them to potentially harmful situations or individuals.”
Bekomson also pointed out that since the Internet is full of misinformation, children may not have the critical thinking skills to discern fact from fiction, leading to misconceptions about sensitive topics, just as they may not also understand the importance of safeguarding personal information, making them vulnerable to identity theft or scams.
To address these risks, therefore, “parents and caregivers must monitor what children do online. Parental control software could be employed, setting age-appropriate restrictions, educating them about responsible Internet use, and maintaining open and non-judgmental communication that can make them feel comfortable discussing what they encounter online. Additionally, teaching critical thinking and media literacy skills can help children safely use the internet.
Government efforts geared towards digital safety
Apart from the Federal Government, through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) regularly urging parents and guardians to monitor and manage their children and wards’ engagements on the Internet, the establishment of the Internet Industry Code of Practice (ICP) in 2019, designed to secure the country’s cyberspace against imminent threats from cyber attackers and addressing issues such as online child protection, privacy and data protection, among others, and last year’s Federal Executive Council’s approval of the National Child Online Protection Policy and Strategy, a lot still needs to be done to preserve the innocence of young persons, and their mental health.
At the maiden Web Ranger Summit, which was anchored by the Public and Private Development Center (PPDC) through the Digital Inclusion and Safer Internet (DISI) programme, further efforts to protect children online were also revealed.
For instance, as an organisation, the PPDC has successfully pioneered safer Internet and digital inclusion practices and activities in some schools and among many stakeholders in the country. Some of these initiatives are the development of the Online Safety Curriculum, the Web Rangers Clubs, online safety training for staff and students of schools, and the annual celebration of Safer Internet Day in collaboration with the Nigerian Education Research and Development Council (NERDC).
Awe
As much as the Internet is seen as a helping hand to students given its massive reservoir of academic resources, it is also extremely risky in equal measure. For the naïve, “lesson” can be taken on diverse issues from doing drugs to committing suicide, and having sex with multiple sex partners. In also explaining how risky to allow teens unfettered access to the Internet, Jide Awe, Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) policy advisor and Founder, Jidaw.com emphasized that since children are particularly vulnerable to negative online risks due to their naivety, informed and educated adults should be involved in their online sojourn. “They should actively participate through supervision, education, communication, monitoring, and the implementation of necessary controls. Furthermore, it is essential to prioritise online safety and cyber security in children’s computer education and indeed in all forms of digital literacy from a very early age. Promoting awareness of the threats and consequences among children, parents, and teachers is crucial. Technology providers, social media networks, and online communities should also implement effective child online safety measures for their platforms and facilities.
“Enforcing provisions of laws, such as cyber security and data protection laws that protect children online, especially those related to age-appropriate contents and online privacy, is paramount. In this regard, security agencies, the legal profession, and the technology industry all need to be involved in the detection, protection, enforcement aspects, and prosecution of online offenders,” Awe stated, adding that parents must be well-informed and skilled in educating, communicating, and teaching their children about online risks and how to respond to threats. They should also actively monitor and use available tools to secure devices and accounts, in addition to practicing other safety measures. Furthermore, parents should ensure that learning platforms, classes, and sessions are safe, have established guidelines, and create an environment that fosters responsible online behaviour and encourages reporting concerns whenever children access the Internet, whether it’s at home, school, or other public places.
“Importantly, the government should also work with stakeholders in security, technology, law/legal, and education to enact and enforce child online protection regulations and laws, closing the gaps in existing legislation. It should invest in education and awareness through a multi-stakeholder approach that actively involves relevant stakeholders and communities. Children, parents, teachers, legal professionals, security agents, and technology professionals all have a role to play.
“For instance, the government can fund research into child online safety and finance awareness and advocacy campaigns. It can also encourage technology providers and stakeholders to implement safety measures and fund the development of necessary tools. The government can also provide support for children, parents, teachers, legal professionals, and technology stakeholders involved in online child protection through training, response activities, and the provision of resources. Furthermore, it should encourage responsible and ethical online behaviour from all parties, especially online service providers, innovators, advertisers, and platform providers.
Reforming Children Exposed To Inappropriate Online Content
Weaning a child who has been exposed to pornography or sundry harmful sites can be quite a Herculean task, but Bekomson, a mental health advocate said that with the right approach, a lot can be achieved. “Each child is different, and the approach may need to be tailored to their age and emotional maturity. The goal is to provide guidance, support, and a safe environment for the child to learn and grow. Helping a child who has been exposed to inappropriate content online is a delicate process. Here are some steps to consider: “Emphasise online safety, ensure open communication, monitor and keep an eye on their online activities, encourage healthy alternatives, and, depending on the age, use simple language to explain what they saw in an age-appropriate manner. Use simple language and be honest. Ensure they understand that it was not suitable for them to see, pointing out the dangers. Overall, seek professional help and stay involved.”
Since contemporary learning is increasingly leaning towards online activities, Dr. Bekomson a public speaker is of the view that parents must maintain open communication with their children about their online activities, and encourage them to share their experiences and concerns with them. Establish clear rules about screen time, when and where devices can be used, and what websites or apps they should not access. Utilise parental control tools and software to monitor and restrict access to age-appropriate content. Many devices and platforms offer built-in parental control settings. Parents should teach their children about responsible online behaviour, including the importance of not sharing personal information, being cautious with social media, and avoiding cyberbullying. Kids should also be taught to use strong passwords always and never to share their passwords with anyone except trusted adults. Additionally, review and adjust privacy settings on social media accounts and apps to limit the amount of personal information that anyone can access.
“While children should be taught to report inappropriate online behaviour to their parents, or a trusted adult, their online activities and devices should be regularly checked to ensure that they abide by the rules and keep safe. Parents must also be informed about the latest online trends, apps, and games that their children might be interested in, as this may help them to understand potential risks,” Bekomson added.
Application Of Data Protection And Cyber Security Acts To Improve Education, Entertainment Content For Children
Also giving his perspectives on how to keep children safe in an era of increasing online educational engagements, the Chairman of Mobile Software Nigeria, Chris Uwaje, said: “First, all educational institutions should be mandated to enter into a compulsory data protection undertaking on any, and or all digital education content that they produce and provide to the children, including online material content recommended by them. It is also recommended that parents should take an interest and pay more attention to the online and hard copy content of their children’s school work.
“Finally, Women groups should be encouraged to form advocacy groups to support and demand that regulators make more effort to apply Data Protection and Cyber Security Acts to improve education and entertainment content for children under the age of 15. The advocacy should also involve lawyers – especially women lawyers in the struggle to protect the children from cyber-bullying and cyber terrorism.”
Uwaje cautioned against indiscriminate use of digital devices without supervision saying: “Children ownership and use of digital gadgets should be moderated, but not denied. There are many navigational settings on mobile devices to limit access of our children to harmful sites and content. However, parents must constantly monitor the time usage allowed for children, which is about two hours daily. Furthermore, they should buy more LEGO Knowledge Building Blocks to consume their time and improve their practical mindset to appreciate the need to stay safe online.
On the availability of sufficient laws to punish those who ensnare innocent children online, Uwaje said that “laws are as good as those who made them, and the institutions that uphold and translate them with trustworthiness and integrity. To arrive at the centre of equity and empathy for national development, we must prioritise education, and good remuneration for teachers and uphold merit first philosophy in the arena of leadership and governance. That is the panacea for the effectiveness of the rule of law.”
The Guardian
