Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has called on the country’s legislators to pass laws that will help tackle rising social media abuse by banning smartphones for children.
According to the FCTA, such laws are needed in order to ensure safety of social media for Nigerian youths.
Emmanuel Aina, the FCTA’s Director of the Department of Policy and Implementation (DPI), was speaking at a seminar where experts discussed ways by which Nigerian children can be assisted in the use of social media in particular, and the Internet in general.
According to him, there is the need for lawmakers to intervene by enacting laws that will restrict the use of smartphones to areas that are safe.
“We have the need to formulate laws that would forbid the use of smartphones by our children and youths, especially in certain areas where we consider as unsafe for them. This facility has actually done a lot of damage to our children and the youths of this country,” Aina said.
He added that Nigeria needs to step up actions on the control of pornography, which is also harmful.
“The areas that we need to censor are in those areas of pornography. Parents and teachers in schools need to be strict in monitoring the children. So, such laws need to be made,” he said.
In addition to government laws, he said parents and guardians can also help the government in protecting their children from the unimaginably large amount of negative information that is on the Internet.
