Sodiq Ojuroungbe Civil society organisations, anti-trafficking agencies and other concerned stakeholders have urged the Federal Government to prioritise children’s protection online. They called for the implementation of stringent regulations on all social media handles due to a surge in online sexual abuse. The experts made the call on Wednesday in Lagos while speaking at the National Consultation of Sexual Exploitation of Children in Nigeria organised by the Women’s Consortium of Nigeria in partnership with Ecpat International.
The stakeholders stressed the need for policies aimed at protecting vulnerable young users and combating exploitation. The concern raised is against the backdrop of a recent study published by the University of Edinburgh’s Childlight Global Child Safety Institute, which revealed that more than 300 million children worldwide are subjected to online sexual exploitation and abuse each year. The researchers found that in the past 12 months alone, nearly 13 per cent of the world’s children running into millions of young people have been victims of non-consensual taking, sharing, and exposure to sexual images and videos.
They carried out the study by analysing tens of millions of reports from the five main global watchdogs and policing organisations including, the Internet Watch Foundation, the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, the International Association of Internet Hotlines, and Interp.
