Google invests $600,000 to improve online safety for children in Nigeria

Google committed $600,000 to support child online safety initiatives across Nigeria.

The technology company will provide $550,000 in funding and $50,000 in Google Ad Grants to the TechSocietal Development Foundation and Tech Hive Advisory. These funds will support a nationwide study of internet use among adolescents and provide digital safety training for parents, teachers, and young people. The TechSocietal Development Foundation will conduct a survey of 2,000 adolescents across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.

The foundation also plans to train 5,000 teachers and school administrators and 200 community champions. These champions aim to reach 10,000 parents and caregivers to provide guidance on navigating the internet safely. Tech Hive Advisory will deliver the Meet LEO (Learn and Explore Online) child online safety programme, which is a pilot first launched in sub-Saharan Africa. This programme will train 500 educators and youth leaders in four states.

These participants will then share safety guidance with 2,500 students and community members. The training includes tools such as Google Family Link, SafeSearch, and YouTube Supervised Experiences. These actions follow consultations by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC). Those consultations revealed that 93.5 per cent of Nigerians worry about online harms affecting children.

Olumide Balogun, Country Director of Google Nigeria, stated that the goal is to help children navigate the internet without depriving them of digital opportunities.