A few
years after I was born, my father met with a stranger. From the beginning, dad invited him to live
with our family and the stranger quickly accepted and was around from then
on. As I grew up, I never questioned his
place in my family. In my young mind, he
had a special niche. My parents were
complementary instructors: mum taught me good from evil and dad taught me to
obey. But the stranger…he was our
storyteller. He would keep us spell
bound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries and comedies. If I wanted to know anything about politics,
history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the
present and even seemed to predict the future!
He made me laugh and he made me cry.
The stranger never stopped talking but dad did not seem to mind.
Many
years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as
fascinating as he was at first. His
name? We just call him TV. He has a wife now. We call her Computer. Their first child is Cell Phone; second child
is iPod. By the way, they now have a
wonderful grandchild. She is a
genius! She is fondly called Blackberry;
BB for short. She is nearly more popular
than her mum. Her new baby cousin is
iPad. This stranger has decided to take
up permanent residence in our house.
What can we do?
The
internet is neutral can be asked to do anything. So, if there is any problem, it is with those
that give it instruction. The
information society in which children and young people all over the world are
growing up offers an unprecedented level of services and information which can
be accessed through the computer, mobile phone, game console, iPod, iPad,
personal digital assistants etc. As a
neutral tool for disseminating data, the internet can be used for good or for
ill. It has enormous potential as a
source of education for people of all ages and capacities. It can also be used to set online traps to
exploit users for criminal purposes.
Among those who are most vulnerable to such traps are children.
The
risks and vulnerabilities related to the use of the internet include: exposure
to illegal and harmful content such as pornography, gambling, brain washing and
recruitment for terrorist activities, cyber bullying and inappropriate content;
disclosure of personal information leading to the risk of physical harm, sexual
abuse and identity theft; creation, reception and dissemination of illegal and
harmful content; and excessive use of the internet to the detriment of social
and or outdoor activities important for health, confidence building and social
development and general well being. Others
are unauthorized use of the parents’ credit cards to pay for online services
and merchandise and targeting through spam and advertisements from companies
using internet sites to promote age or interest targeted products.
Child
abuse materials emanating from other countries are thriving in Nigeria,
exploiting children users’ ignorance and vulnerability of the internet
infrastructure. As Nigeria comes to
terms with issues of child abuse materials and commits to the protection,
Nigeria does not have sufficient legislation to combat child pornography and
related matters. Internet has become the
single largest domain where Nigerian youths are presently being engaged. The reality in today’s Nigeria digital world
has transformed individual lifestyle.
The Nigerian youth’s daily life, from villages to cities, is full with
SMS, e-mail, chats, online dating, multiplayer gaming, virtual worlds and
digital multimedia. Although, these
technologies mean added convenience and enjoyment for many, government and
users alike are often one step behind the fast paced innovation in these areas.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Stakeholders
are to work in parallel and in unity at strategic, operational and tactical
levels to address child online protection, to conduct a high level strategic
planning session across relevant government bodies and to ensure dissemination
of clean contents from operators’ networks.
Furthermore,
they should conduct awareness workshops across the country in separate areas –
local governments, local schools/teachers, private sector and parents and to
design a framework, guidelines, policies and other regulations and transit same
to appropriate organs of government for assent and implementation.
There
should be an all inclusive multi-stakeholder and multi-sector collaboration,
partnership and alliances to create more awareness among children on the
negative consequences of improper use of cyber content.
Child online
protection should be merged with the cyber crime policy of the government while
asking that a separate agency should be established to handle the issue of
child online protection to ensure that it is not submerged in the larger cyber
crime policy.
For
operators, they should implement technical mechanisms to prevent access to
websites identified as hosting contents that are offensive to children and to
implement processes to enable the removal of any child sexual abuse content on
their own web services.
