CSOs Seek Stringent Measures to Stem Online Violence against Children, Women

Oluchi Chibuzor

As technology continues to shape all facets of the Nigerian society, civic society organisations at the recently concluded Digital Rights Inclusion Forum(DRIF) 2022, have harped on the need for a nation to be proactive in punishing those who engage in online gender-based violence.

According to them, these would deter those who seek to prey on the vulnerability of  women and children online,  in line with current trends of events in the country.

Speaking at the DRIF 2022, stakeholders believed that Nigerian women do not have stringent data protection online policies and do not trust their system to protect them.

One of the panelists at the event, the policy manager, Silverchip Fox Consulting, Nana Nwachukwu, stressed that CSOs must continue to push the government, private organisations and the society to protect the citizens, especially the gir child.

“A lot of girls get harrassed, abused and receives unfriendly languages online and SMS and they cannot get their right protected.

“You will find out that there is no protocol for handling data violence against women when this happens law enforcement agents do not do more in this regards; recently we saw some children engaged in something beyond their age and people were sharing it that is wrong.”

She added that, “Nigeria may not in the couple of years enact any laws that border on the sidelines of morality, but one of the things that is important to note is that these laws currently do not exist and women do not have special protection online.

“The biggest or closest we can get is we need to engage with the platforms, because they have internal policies that can generally work around helping women protect themselves.

“Women do not have enough data protection online and we must let the society know there must be action and consequences for their actions. How can you imagine someone threatening to share a compromised picture or video online?, she queried.

“For different panel sessions at the event,  private institutions must become more engaged and tough by deliberately reviewing their internal regulatory policy on their workforce’s online presence that would monitor their activities with regards to online gender-based violence.

“Companies should stand up against online gender based violence against girl child and women by tracking what kind of pictures, videos and content their employees share online. This will help in the fight to deter those hindering social justice or those who find it easy to humiliate children, women and  those vulnerable online,” Nana added.

For the Executive Director,  Paradigm Initiative, technological platforms must do more to stem content that violates the country’s laws.
“The reason we are shi

fting the responsibilities to platforms is that where these incidents happen has failed to protect citizens.

“We must continue to push the government to protect citizens; what we do with the vulnerable in society is a clear reflection of the kind of community we have. We must appreciate States putting people on the social offenders list.”

However, statistics from NDHS in 2018 revealed that most victims of sexual and gender based violence are females with 30 percent of women and girls aged 15 to 49 have experienced sexual abuse.