Meta brought together government agencies, educators, civil society groups, and industry leaders in Abuja on Thursday for a Youth Safety Summit aimed at tackling the growing risks Nigerian teenagers face online.
Held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, the summit convened stakeholders from government, industry, civil society, and the education sector to advance collaborative efforts aimed at ensuring young Nigerians enjoy safe, age-appropriate, and positive online experiences.
Two New Initiatives Take Centre Stage
At the summit, Meta, in partnership with NITDA and the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, launched the Youth Online Safety Campaign and My Digital World (MDW) 2.0. The two initiatives are designed to strengthen digital literacy among young Nigerians while equipping them with tools to navigate the internet responsibly.
Stakeholders, including government officials, civil society organisations, educators, and industry leaders, deliberated on strategies to create a safer digital environment for young people.
NITDA Ties Partnership to National Agenda
NITDA Director-General Kashifu Inuwa, represented by Acting Director of Digital Literacy and Capacity Building Dr Ahmed Tambuwal, stated that the collaboration aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly its focus on inclusive economic growth and strengthening national security through enhanced cybersecurity.
Inuwa stressed that digital literacy and online safety are inseparable goals. He noted that equipping citizens with digital skills without teaching them responsible and ethical online behaviour would leave the country’s digital transformation agenda incomplete, a philosophy embedded in NITDA’s National Digital Literacy Framework and its Digital Literacy for All initiative.
Ministerial Backing
Minister of Youth Development Ayodele Olawande and Minister of Women Affairs Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim both reaffirmed their ministries’ commitment to collaborating with relevant stakeholders to formulate and implement policies that promote a safe, inclusive, and enabling digital environment for young Nigerians.
What Meta’s Enhanced Tools Now Offer
The Abuja summit coincides with a broader global rollout of Meta’s updated safety infrastructure for teenagers. Meta has introduced new supervision features across Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and Meta Horizon, consolidating all parental tools into a single hub called Family Centre.
Parents of supervised teens can now manage their teens’ safety settings in one place and send a single invitation to supervise their teen across all four platforms, simplifying setup for families.
The updates also give parents greater visibility into the content shaping their children’s feeds. Parents and guardians can now view the general topics their teens engage with through Meta’s supervision tools, offering families a clearer understanding of the content their teens see on Instagram.
On the mental health front, Instagram will begin notifying parents using supervision if their teen repeatedly tries to search for terms related to suicide or self-harm within a short period. These alerts are designed to give parents the information they need to support their teen and come with expert resources to help parents approach these sensitive conversations.
Meta has positioned Family Centre as a central dashboard where parents can manage supervision across Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and Meta Horizon, with upcoming updates set to provide parents with aggregated insights such as total time spent across apps.
Nigeria’s Broader Digital Safety Context
Conversations around online child protection have been gaining momentum in Nigeria. In March 2026, the federal government launched a public consultation seeking citizens’ views on potential restrictions on children’s access to social media platforms to combat cyberbullying, harmful content, and online exploitation.
Nigeria is on a fast track to achieve 70 per cent digital literacy by 2027, driven by a highly youthful and entrepreneurial population. However, this rapid technological acceleration has exposed young internet users to escalating digital risks, including cyberbullying, identity theft, and cross-border privacy vulnerabilities.
