Business
STAKEHOLDERS at the Child Online Safety Protection and Reporting of Abuse in Nigeria (COSPRA) summit advocated stronger collaboration, reporting mechanisms and digital safeguards to protect children from emerging online threats.
The summit was organised by the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), through its special purpose vehicle, the Ndukwe Kalu Foundation on Wednesday in Abuja.
The summit has the theme: “Protecting Every Child in the Era of AI: Building a Safe and Trusted Digital Future.”
Mr Dasuki Arabi, Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), said the growing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has heightened the need for stronger systems to protect children in the digital environment.
“For today’s child, the digital world is no longer a separate space that can simply be entered and exited. It is part of everyday life.
“It is where children learn, communicate, create, entertain themselves and increasingly form their understanding of the world around them,” he said.
He, however, noted that the same digital environment that educated and empowered children could expose them to exploitation, cyberbullying, harmful content, manipulation, privacy violations and other forms of abuse.
“AI introduces an additional layer of complexity by making it increasingly possible to create, manipulate and distribute content at a scale and speed that existing systems may not always be prepared to address,” he said.
The BPSR chief said the challenge went beyond keeping children away from harmful content or teaching them how to use the internet safely.
He said there was the need for effective governance, regulation, coordination, data protection and accountability.
He called for clear pathways for reporting abuse, institutions capable of responding, and effective referral and coordination mechanisms among government agencies and other stakeholders.
Also speaking, NiRA President, Mr Adesola Akinsanya, said the .ng country code top-level domain (ccTLD) represented Nigeria’s online identity online.
He further said that NiRA operated at the infrastructure level of the digital economy through domain names, IP addresses and the Domain Name System (DNS).
He said NiRA had earlier in the year enabled the DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) to strengthen the security of .ng domain names and protect them from being hijacked.
“Every .ng domain sits behind an accredited registrar and we can easily know how to trace in case we need to caution, in case we need to know where attacks are coming from,” he said.
Akinsanya identified trust and traceability, accountability, collaboration, capacity and digital literacy as key elements in strengthening child online safety.
“A child protected only by filters and firewalls has been shielded. A child that understands how the digital world works, who can recognise manipulation and know how to report abuse, has been empowered,” he said.
Also speaking, Executive Secretary, Ndukwe Kalu Foundation, Ms Erica Okibe, said children were increasingly growing up online, making digital safety a shared responsibility.
Okibe said AI had increased the risks children faced online, including cyberbullying, grooming, `sextortion.` scams, harmful content and misuse of personal data.
“An innocent photograph can now be turned into an abusive image in seconds. Chatbots can hold long, persuasive conversations with a child.
“Apps quietly collect children’s personal data, and it is often hard to know where that data ends up,” she said.
She said COSPRA centred on four key areas which namely: safety, protection, reporting and abuse, stressing that reporting was essential to ensuring that children did not suffer in silence.
Okibe said the foundation’s COSPRA mandate included an annual multi-stakeholder summit, a Train-the-Trainers programme for schools across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, and sustained advocacy with national and global partners.
She said they decided to hold the summit in Abuja to bring the conversation closer to policymakers, with the next steps expected to be taken in law, regulation and practice.
Mr Hakeem Lawal, Director, ICT Department, NAPTIP, said Child Safety by Design should be encouraged.
He said this could be achieved by ensure that digital platforms and emerging technologies considered children’s safety and privacy from the beginning, rather than responding after harm had been done.
Daniella Oladele, a student of Government Secondary School, Karu, urged governments to create more awareness on dangers of AI misuse.(NAN)
A.I
Sept. 30, 2026
Tags: BPSR Mr Adesola Akinsanya Mr Dasuki Arabi Mr Hakeem Lawal Ms Erica Okibe NAPTIP Ndukwe Kalu Foundation NIRA