Nigeria wades into social media age assurance debate with public survey

A survey has been released by the Nigerian Data Protection Commission to gather feedback on the proposed regulation of a minimum age for social media use in the country.

The national survey is considering a range of measures to ensure online platform accountability and online safety, including age verification.

The poll asks for feedback on the most prevalent online harms for Nigerian children, and specifically asks if the country should follow Australia’s lead in regulating children’s social media use. Other questions address the role of parental consent and public awareness of Nigeria’s cyber laws.

The questions make clear that the policy is still in an exploratory phase.

A link to the survey is provided in a LinkedIn post by Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani.

Inman Grant tells UK Parliamentary Committee Australia’s example is ‘very successful’

Australia eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant told the UK Parliament’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee that her country’s restrictions have been “very successful,” MLex reports.

And the arguments to the contrary are weakening in the face of emerging evidence. While 4.7 million accounts believed to belong to children under 16 have been removed due to Australia’s ban, the other side is yet to move beyond questionable anecdotal evidence.

Of course, as a Bloomberg headline blares, “Australian teens are sneaking onto social media despite ban.” But what follows is not an estimate of how many teens are sneaking around the restrictions, or how successfully. The headline is technically true as long as the answer is more than one. Inman Grant says the second phase of enforcement, in which covered platforms need to prevent circumvention of age checks with tools like VPNs, “is probably one of the more difficult phases.”

The Committee also heard from academic researchers who questioned how a social media age ban would be enforced and whether alternative approaches might be more effective.

A bill to ban social media access for UK under-16 year olds was rejected by Parliament this week.

Florida AG promises crackdown

In Florida, Attorney General James Uthmeier says tech platform have 30 days from this past Monday, March 9 to implement age restrictions for social media to keep children under 14 and those with parental consent under 16 off.

Uthmeier says he will make sure his own daughter does not have a cell phone until she is at least 16, illustrating the level of naivete the dialogue has descended to.

X users unhelpfully added as context the incorrect assertion that age checks cannot be carried out without mass surveillance and digital ID.

Article Topics

age verification  |  Australia age verification  |  biometric age estimation  |  Florida  |  Nigeria  |  UK age verification  |  United States