FG, Meta strengthen partnership on youth digital safety

By Juliet Umeh

The Federal Government and Meta have reaffirmed their commitment to protecting Nigerian youths online through a strengthened partnership aimed at promoting digital safety, improving digital literacy, and equipping parents with tools to safeguard teenagers on social media.

The commitment was made at the Nigeria Youth Safety Summit hosted by Meta in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Youth Development in Abuja.
The summit brought together government officials, educators, civil society organisations, parents, youth leaders and content creators to discuss practical strategies for creating a safer digital environment for young Nigerians.

Speaking at the summit, the Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, described online safety as a shared responsibility, saying collaboration between government and technology companies is essential to protecting young people from emerging digital threats.

“I want to thank Meta for this great achievement. At the ministry, one of the things we provide to all Nigerians is the skills to succeed in this digital world while making sure we protect them against emerging threats.

“We see a strong connection between the objectives of this summit and the goals of our National Youth Data Protection and Awareness Training Programme. We believe that keeping young people safe online is a shared responsibility. Government, technology companies, schools, parents, social organisations, community groups and young people themselves all have a role to play.

“We encourage Meta to make the tools, guides and learning materials from this initiative more widely available so that young people across Nigeria can continue to benefit,” he said.

Also speaking, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, said protecting children online remains a key priority for the Federal Government.

“Child online safety is one of our central pillars and we are steadfast in our mandate to safeguard the Nigerian child from technology-enabled violence. Children cannot navigate the complexities of the online world without informed adults guiding them because safety begins with the parents.

“Safety is a shared tripartite responsibility between parents, technology companies and government. We appreciate Meta for the collaboration and for creating a platform for these important conversations,” she said.

Meta’s Head of Safety Policy for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Sylvia Musalagani, said the technology company would continue investing in products that promote safer online experiences for teenagers.

“At Meta, our goal is to provide teens with safe, age-appropriate online experiences. Events like the Nigeria Youth Safety Summit reflect our commitment to promoting safer and more positive digital experiences for teens.

“With products such as Teen Accounts, Meta is putting the right protections in place so teens can explore their interests and express their creativity in a safe, age-appropriate space. We will continue to build the safety features and tools that families need to support young people online,” she said.

At the heart of the initiative is Meta’s Teen Accounts, which automatically apply enhanced privacy and safety settings for teenage users across the company’s platforms. The built-in protections include private accounts by default, stricter messaging settings, restrictions on sensitive content, limited interactions, daily screen-time reminders after 60 minutes of use, and a sleep mode that mutes notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. Teenagers under the age of 16 require parental approval before any of these safeguards can be relaxed.

Meta also showcased enhanced parental supervision tools that allow parents to receive notifications when their teenagers report content, monitor messaging activity, set daily Instagram time limits, schedule breaks, and gain insights into the type of age-appropriate content their children interact with online.

The summit featured keynote presentations, digital literacy sessions, a Parents Learn & Brunch programme organised with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, as well as panel discussions focused on strengthening collaboration among government, industry and families to promote safer digital experiences for Nigerian youths.

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