Stop shifting online safety burden to children, parents – Osinbajo

Former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has called for technology companies to shoulder the responsibility of safeguarding children from digital risks, instead of placing that burden on children or their parents. Speaking in Cairo at the 16th Annual Conference of the Pan African Lawyers Union, Osinbajo emphasized that it is unacceptable to create products that embed dangers and then leave families to manage the consequences.

He highlighted this during a session titled "Guardrails, Not Gates: Protecting Children in the Digital Age," which aimed to establish digital safety standards for children. The session, organized by the Justice Research Institute and supported by Luminate, brought together legal experts, policymakers, and child advocates to discuss a draft Cairo Declaration on Child Rights and Design Accountability in the Digital Age.

Osinbajo stressed that the goal is not to exclude children from technology but to create guardrails that ensure technology works to protect and develop them. The discussions centered on six key pillars, including safety-by-design obligations for digital platforms, prohibition of exploitative targeting, age-appropriate design codes, algorithmic accountability, children's data protection, and age assurance mechanisms.

The initiative seeks to move African policymakers from reacting to digital harms to actively shaping the rules governing technology design, ensuring that African children's rights and interests are considered in digital technology design and regulation.