Digital Safeguarding in Nigeria

As the world commemorates the International Day of Education 2026, with the theme “The Power of Youth in Co-Creating Education”,  an assessment of the Nigerian Education sector presents similar challenges affecting the education sector across the continent. Nigeria’s new national curriculum, introduced at the start of the 2025/26 academic session, as announced through a press release by the Federal Ministry of Education on September 3, 2025, represents one of the most ambitious education reforms in decades. It addresses long-standing concerns about subject overload, relevance, and employability by streamlining learning pathways and aligning education with the demands of a rapidly evolving world. Digital Technologies-focused subjects are now at the core of senior secondary education, with earlier exposure to coding and artificial intelligence. Technical colleges are also being repositioned to deliver industry-relevant skills in areas such as robotics, smart agriculture, and renewable energy. These are bold and commendable steps. They signal a clear intention to prepare Nigerian learners for the future of work and participation in a digital economy. Yet, within this progressive framework lies a critical omission: digital safeguarding. While learners are being equipped with digital skills, there is little explicit attention to protecting them from the risks that accompany online engagement.

Why Digital Safeguarding Matters

According to Education Links, digital safeguarding refers to the policies, practices, and education that protect children from online harms, including cyberbullying, online grooming, exposure to harmful content, identity theft, and the misuse of personal data. In today’s connected world, online safety is no longer optional; it is a fundamental obligation for child protection.

Internationally, frameworks such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF’s Child Online Protection (COP) guidelines and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) General Comment No. 25  recognise online safety as integral to children’s rights to protection, participation, and development. Nigeria, as a signatory to these frameworks, has a responsibility to ensure that its education system reflects these commitments.

The urgency is heightened by the reality of Nigerian children’s digital lives. Internet access is expanding rapidly, primarily driven by mobile devices. Many children go online unsupervised, often without structured guidance on safe behaviour. Teaching young people how to code, use AI tools, or engage in digital entrepreneurship without equipping them to navigate online risks creates a dangerous imbalance: skill without safety.

Gaps in the Current Curriculum Reform

A closer look at the curriculum reforms reveals several gaps that digital safeguarding could address.

First, digital literacy is not the same as digital safety. The current focus is on technical competencies—coding, AI, hardware repair, and applied technologies. While these are valuable, they do not automatically translate into responsible, safe, and ethical online behaviour.

Second, there is no clearly articulated framework for digital citizenship, which is the ability to use technology responsibly, safely and respectfully. Skills such as managing privacy settings, recognising online manipulation, responding to cyberbullying, understanding digital footprints, and practising cyber-ethics are either implied or absent.

Third, teacher readiness is a major concern. Many educators have not received formal training on child online protection. Expecting them to manage issues like cyberbullying, sextortion, or exposure to harmful content without adequate preparation leads to failure to provide sufficient protection from the above-mentioned issues in schools.

Finally, there is limited alignment with existing child protection laws and international digital safety standards. Without explicit policy links, digital safeguarding risks being treated as an optional add-on rather than a core educational responsibility.

Practical Pathways for Integration

Embedding digital safeguarding into Nigeria’s new curriculum does not require starting from scratch. It requires intentional integration and a whole-system approach.

At the curriculum level, digital citizenship and safeguarding modules should be embedded within the education curriculum across all levels. These modules can be age-appropriate and progressive in line with children’s evolving capacities, covering topics such as safe online communication, privacy and data protection, cyberbullying prevention and response, identifying misinformation, digital ethics, healthy screen time, and awareness of reporting mechanisms and helplines.

Teacher professional development is equally critical. Child online protection training should be mandatory within both pre-service teacher education and continuous professional development programmes. Strategic partnerships with agencies such as NITDA, the NCC, and experienced civil society organisations can enable scalable, cost-effective training that reflects Nigeria’s digital realities, aligning with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Child Online Protection guidelines, which Nigeria adopted through the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) and the AU Child Online and Empowerment Policy.

Schools themselves must adopt a whole-school approach to safeguarding. This includes clear Acceptable Use Policies for students and staff, defined reporting channels for online harm, and integration of digital safeguarding into broader child protection frameworks already in use within schools.

Parents and communities also play a vital role. Schools and education authorities should develop simple parental toolkits that explain online risks, safe device use, and how to support children’s digital learning at home. Community awareness campaigns—leveraging radio, social media, and faith-based institutions—can help normalise conversations about online safety beyond the classroom.

Finally, monitoring and accountability mechanisms are essential. School inspectorates should assess not only the delivery of digital skills but also the effectiveness of safeguarding practices. Collecting annual data on incidents such as cyberbullying or online abuse will enable evidence-based policy refinement and resource allocation.

Learning from Global Best Practice

Nigeria is not alone in grappling with these challenges. Other education systems offer adaptable models. The UK’s Education for a Connected World framework provides age-banded outcomes for online safety and digital wellbeing. The EU’s Better Internet for Kids initiative demonstrates the power of multi-stakeholder partnerships. Closer to home, Kenya’s Competency-Based Curriculum recognises digital citizenship as a core competence, not a peripheral topic.

Conclusion

Nigeria’s new curriculum is forward-looking and ambitious. It reflects a genuine desire to equip young people for a digital future. However, true preparedness requires more than technical skill. It requires safety, responsibility, and well-being.