10 February 2015, Lagos, Nigeria. Google Nigeria in conjunction with the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board(NFVCB), the Public and Private Development Centre and Home Vida, has organised a cross-national interactive programme with 60 school children to commemorate the 2015 Safer Internet Day.
Following the theme of “Let’s create a better internet together”, the event which held at the Mulliner Towers in Ikoyi, Lagos, featured workshops in which the students were enlightened on the many ways the Internet can be of benefit to them and the various pitfalls they should be wary of.
According to Titi Akinsanmi, Google’s Policy & Government Relations Manager in West Africa, the Safer Internet Day event provides a platform to bring our young people and their educators together in interactive sessions to learn how to get maximum benefits from surfing the Web while avoiding the traps along the way. This is one in a series of Google-supported events across Africa to educate young people and families on tips and strategies on staying safe while online”.
After the practical workshops, the Nigerian participants were connected with counterparts in South Africa, Kenya and Senegal for a Virtual Plenary. At this conference, the youth shared specific outputs and action plans from their in-country sessions.
“Beyond the cross-fertilisation of ideas, the major aim of the session was to show the children that their concerns about creating a safe cyberspace was not peculiar to them.”, Akinsanmi explained.
Young people across the African continent and the globe also face similar challenges of toxic sites and age-inappropriate content and are working hard to make the Internet a safer, better place for all.”
Seember Ngager, CEO of HomeVida, lead non-profit partner of the Google Safer Internet Day stated that the internet has great potential for good using her own personal experience as example. “By the time I was 27, I had obtained three University degrees because I was able to work in one country and school in another, thanks to the Internet. So, we encourage our young people to search for the benefits that the Internet still hold for them”.
In the past two years, Google has observed Safer Internet Day with the rest of the world and has reached out to thousands of young online users, theirs teachers and parents.
