IT NEWS NIGERIA
CECAD Make Case For Child Online Protection Law as Nigeria joins the globe to mark World Safer Internet Day 2018
IT NEWS NIGERIA:
President of the Centre for Cyber Awareness and Development (CECAD) has yesterday made case for Child Online Protection Law in Nigeria.
Dr. Bayero Agabi said this during his opening remarks at a forum to mark World Safer Internet Day 2018 in Lagos organised by CECAD.
According to him, some government across the world have evolved laws to protect children because they are easy victims in the internet.
“Because of the vulnerability of children in the cyberspace advocacy groups and government have partnereed in various countrries to set up the child online protection right with purpose of restricting access by minors to any hermful material which stipulates guildelines for punishment of children online. Countries like UK, US, Canada all have the child online protection law, he said.
Bayero also revealed that, “in Nigeria,the NCC is engaging stateholders in the telecoms industry to set up Nigerian child online protection framework.”
Furthermore, he noted that “the dangers of uncontrolled internet access for children are enormpous just as the benefits are huge and these include cyber bulling, unrestricted access to pornograpgic sites. Recent studies revealed that evry second 28,258 internet users are viewing online pornography.”
“The average age of chid’s firts exposure to pornography is 11 and that a total of 90% of children between the ages of 8-16 have viewed pornography online as pornogrphers use many character names that appeal to children such as pokeman. Also, 43% of all internet users view pornography online. in evry 39 minutes a new pornographic video is being created in the US.”
He also advocate for responsibility online, adding that there is need for legal framework of social media and freedom of expression.
IT NEWS NIGERIA learned that CECAD is an advocacy, training, public education and development non-profit, non-governmental organisation (NGO) established to promote cyber responsibility by Internet users at the local, regional, national and international levels.
The World Safer Internet Day 2018 Forum drew participation from various sectors of the economy in both public and the private sectors.
