Protecting Nigerian Children From Cyber-risks Pandemic

Digital technology, no doubt, brings communication, education, shopping, entertainment, news, games, fun, and much more to everyone, including children. Technology provides children with instantaneous access to huge quantities of beneficial materials. It offers them a participatory pathway to involvement in society.

However, the sad story of twenty-four-year-old Cynthia Osokogu, an undergraduate student of the Nasarawa State University, who was lured to Lagos from Abuja by some criminal who stalked her on the social media platform Facebook, indeed exposed the negative aspect of this great innovation.

Recall that Miss Osokogu who was the last child and only daughter of her parents, retired major-general Frank Osokogu and Joy Osokogu, was murdered by people she met on the social media platform, Facebook.

Her story made critical stakeholders unanimously conclude that, despite the potential it brings, digital technology, especially the internet, is also a vector for cyber-criminals to dispense harm, annoyance, and other wrongdoings.

The most vulnerable to cyberattacks are children, who go online more often, for longer periods, at younger ages with diverse devices, and for different purposes. It is not out of place to say that the proliferation of digital technologies is accompanied by increasing concern about children’s exposure to associated risks and threats.

With all indications, expulsion to cyber-risks is a general side effect of today’s children growing up in a digital world. This calls for a pragmatic approach to mitigate the desire to avoid risks and the necessity to access beneficial materials and to balance the immense benefits of digital technology with the safety of the children.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to ensure the protection of Nigerian children from the cyber risks pandemic, carried out a study titled: “Child Online Protection: Young Children and Digital Technology- A Survey across Nigeria.” The study aims to provide an accurate depiction of how children consume digital technology in Nigeria. It explores children’s device ownership, usage, and benefits.

The study covers the entire 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. The respondent pool is structured in favor of children of 4-16 years of age. The field survey and interviews took place over a staggered period of four months from 15th June 2020 to 12th October 2020. A total of 7013 usable responses were received comprising 740 (10.6 percent) from respondents who identified as parents and guardians; 592 (8.4 percent) from school teachers; 2272 from children 4-10 years of age; and, 3409 from children 11-16 years old. The children altogether constitute 81 percent of the total number of respondents.

Findings

The findings of the study showed disordered use of technology, as children across the two age spectrums spend an inordinate length of time engaged with digital technology each day. Through watching television, playing video games, or surfing the internet, the study revealed that the Nigerian child on average can amass screen time for lengths of up to three hours per day; in extreme cases, some children clock up to ten hours or more screen time per day verging on addiction disorder.

Collaborating with the findings of the study, the 2020 Child Online Safety Index report submits higher levels of disordered use of technology among children in Nigeria, placing her 6th 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 seriousness of social media disorder symptoms; and, the percentage of children at risk for social media disorder.

On access to the internet, the study showed that 93 percent of the 11-16 year-olds and 45 percent of the 4-10 year-olds go online with their mobile phones, indicating a high rate of phone ownership among children in Nigeria.

“The implication of this is that children often go online mostly through means that are not as actively moderated as either the internet café or the school. The aggregate effect is that children are inadvertently exposed to more online risks than would have been the case were they to use their schools’ devices to get online.

A staggering 56 percent of the 11-16 year-olds in both urban and rural areas do not have any form of restriction on their Internet use. The aggregate implication of this is that this bunch of youngsters can become digital nomads at liberty to wander the cyber-sphere tethered only by the elasticity of their data bundle.

“Another curious finding is that the 11-16-year-old children do not consider their parents as their first go-to persons to discuss their online activities. It would appear as though the older the children get the wider the gulf of conversation gets between parent and child especially if the conversation has to do with the Internet,” the study explained.

Worst still, the study revealed that no conversation between parents and their children even as it revealed that WhatsApp is the favourite social networking app for children in Nigeria at 87 percent followed by Facebook at 85 percent, Instagram at 57 percent, YouTube and Messenger at joint 54 percent with Twitter and Imo bringing up the rear at 30 percent and eight percent, respectively.

On risks to children, the study showed that 64 percent of coverage was on risks versus 18 percent on opportunities, with the most widely covered risks being pornography and cyberbullying.

The study also discovered that unwanted sexual approach in a chat room, social networking site, or email is considered the biggest threat online by 97 percent of the 11-16-year-olds in Nigeria; this is followed closely by being sent sexual images or content at 89 percent.

However, cyberbullying incidentally, is not a threat rated highly by the children as only 30 percent consider it a threat worth worrying about, the study averred, adding that the children also do not consider the possibility of someone taking unwanted photos of them and circulating them online as a major concern hence only 35 percent put it forward as a threat.

For more than 10 times, 80 percent of the 11 -16-year-old urban children admitted to having added strangers to both their Instant Messenger contacts and social networking friends’ list, the study averred, “Up to 50 percent has at least once talked (by chat or phone) about sex with someone they met online. Although this behaviour is more prevalent among the 11-16 year-olds than the 4-10 year-olds, it portends clear danger to the children involved.”

“It was revealed that 90 percent of 4-16 year-olds across the country have been exposed, at least once, to one or more of the rampant cyberrisks. This level of exposure has prompted some sector practitioners to declare that children globally are in the middle of a cyber risk pandemic. Continuous exposure to these risks poses a danger to the overall development, well-being, relationships, and future opportunities for children online. An illumination thrown up by the Study is that the cyber risks pandemic is more virulent in developing countries than in advanced countries,” it cautioned.

  Recommendations

From all indications, the federal government of Nigeria takes child online protection seriously as evidenced by the numerous strategy efforts on the matter by various Government agencies such as NSA, NITDA, NCC, EFCC, and ngCERT, to name just a few. One of the cardinal principles contained in the National Cybersecurity Strategy document is to harness counter-measures through legislative framework, policy, and strategic actions, including international cooperation, to address cyber abuse and online exploitation of Nigerian children.

The fight against cybercrimes has also culminated in the enactment of the Nigerian Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act of 2015, which addresses issues of child pornography (Section 23), cybersquatting (Section 25), cyberstalking (Section 24), racist and xenophobic offenses (Section 26), and cyber terrorism (Section 18).

With these policies in place, the study recommended the need for more political will and economic power on the part of the Government to implement these laws in the interest of the Nigerian child.

It recommended that all stakeholders must be properly educated and enlightened on these rights, adding that parents, children, families, and the government should be alert to their responsibilities under these laws and pay greater attention to their implementation.

“Nigeria needs an online privacy protection law for children. The law will seek to protect the personal information of children on websites, online services, and applications. The law will be binding on online service providers that collect the personal data of children.

“Service providers will need the consent of the parents or guardians if the data collection affects a child below the established age. A child according to Nigeria’s Child Rights Act is anyone below the age of 18.

“There should be an independent body to administer enforcement and compliance with the provision of the law and to address complaints from those seeking redress. Service providers need to ensure their platforms are secure and do not put children at risk. They should implement privacy and security by design and default. They will have to do more, to create and ensure age-appropriate content by managing content and dealing effectively with abuse, misuse of their platform, and illegal contact with children,” it added.

As for companies that provide services that affect children, the study advocated the need for them to exercise a duty of care and be more transparent about how they capture data relating to children and their use.

“The legal framework alone cannot guarantee complete protection for the Nigerian child. Excessive regulation will stifle children‘s participation and access to the immense benefits of the Internet. There is a need for increased digital literacy for both children and their parents and guardians. This will ensure children implement best privacy preferences, understand the implication of oversharing, and have good online behavior,” it advised.