The Federal Executive Council has approved the National Child Online Protection Policy and Strategy.
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami disclosed this while briefing the State House correspondents after the council meeting presided over by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesdy.
Pantami said that the policy is essentially designed to protect children from unsolicited content online.
According to him, this has become a global requirement, in line with a policy document released by the international telecommunications union (of which Nigeria is a member) on keeping children safe in the digital era.
The Minister said, “According to the report of the International Telecommunication Union, even during COVID-19 more than 1 billion children were online, most of them for their studies, because schools were shut down. So, they switch only to virtual learning.
“Children will not be able to differentiate what is beneficial or what is harmful. And today without any solicitation, if you go online, you will discover that many things are coming into your device unsolicitedly. And if you are at least matured, you will be able to avoid but children would not be able to and that will definitely affect their innocence and will even affect them morally and otherwise.”