Feedback from a Survey by the Nigerian Data Protection Commission on the proposed regulation of a minimum age for social media use in the country says Nigeria has emerged among climes steeped in debates on whether children are harmed by early social media usage.
The national survey is considering a range of measures to ensure online platform accountability and online safety, including age verification. The poll seeks feedback on the most prevalent online harms for Nigerian children, and also if the country should toe the line of Australia in regulating children’s social media use.
Other questions address the role of parental consent and public awareness of Nigeria’s cyber laws. The questions make clear that the policy is still in an exploratory phase. A link to the survey is provided in a LinkedIn post by Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani.
Australia’s ESafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant had recently told UK Parliamentary Committee that her country’s example was “very successful.” Australia eSafety Commissioner Grant told the UK Parliament’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee that her country’s restrictions had been “very successful,” MLex reports. And the arguments to the contrary are weakening in the face of emerging evidence.
While 4.7 million accounts believed to belong to children under 16 have been removed due to Australia’s ban, the other side is yet to move beyond questionable anecdotal evidence. Bloomberg one of its blaring headlines said “Australian teens are sneaking onto social media despite ban.” However, what follows is not an estimate of how many teens are sneaking around the restrictions, or how successfully.
The headline is technically true as long as the answer is more than one. Inman Grant says the second phase of enforcement, in which covered platforms need to prevent circumvention of age checks with tools like VPNs, “is probably one of the more difficult phases.”
