By Kingsley I. Ilechukwu, Correspondent Lagos
The Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has admonished students of secondary schools to always display high level of responsibility whenever they are online, in other to be protected from cyber risks.
Mallam Abdullahi, who was represented by NITDA’s Head, Digital Technology, Adoption, Digital Literacy and Skill Unit, Dr Ayodele Bakare, gave this advice in Abuja at this year’s inter-school debate organised by the Junior Chamber International, (JCI), and supported by the Agency. The topic for the debate was ‘Should Social Media Be Encouraged Among Secondary School Students?’
Mallam Abdullahi stated that, as secondary school students, using the internet facilities, it was expected of them to behave responsibly in order to be protected from psychological and physical risks that are common online.
According to the NITDA DG, some of the psychological risks the children could suffer from, if they were irresponsible online were; fear, low self-esteem, promiscuousness, violence, poor academic performance, among others. He added that; “among the physical risks you can experience online could be illness, injury, death, vandalization, and loss of finance.”
He stated further that, “your responsibilities online include; non-disclosure of personal information to strangers, avoidance of people or strangers that demand for too much information, turn down offer to meet online strangers, not opening of mails or files from unknown sources, and always inform parents or teachers whenever you feel concerned about strangers online.”
Mallam Abdullahi advised children to limit the time they spent online in order not to affect other spheres of their lives, particularly their academic performance.
He maintained that child online safety had become imperative in order to protect them from threats and risks because, children were easily influenced with online contents. He said, as government agency, NITDA would keep on with advocacy and capacity building on online safety for minors.
