Meta has unveiled enhanced online safety features for teenagers and parents in Nigeria at the Nigeria Youth Safety Summit in Abuja, reaffirming its commitment to creating safer digital experiences for young people through technology, education and multi-sector collaboration.
The summit, hosted by Meta in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Youth Development at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, brought together government officials, educators, civil society organisations, parents, youth leaders and digital creators to discuss online safety, digital wellbeing and responsible internet use among young people.
The event featured keynote presentations, panel discussions and a Parents Learn & Brunch session organised in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development. Discussions focused on practical ways to help parents support safer online engagement while strengthening partnerships to promote digital well-being for Nigerian youths.
"At Meta, our goal is to provide teens with safe, age-appropriate online experiences, and 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," said Sylvia Musalagani, Head of Safety Policy, EMEA at Meta.
Central to Meta's youth safety strategy are Teen Accounts, a redesigned experience across the company's apps created specifically for teenagers. The accounts include built-in safeguards aimed at addressing parents' concerns by promoting age-appropriate experiences, limiting unwanted interactions and encouraging healthier digital habits.
Teen Accounts are automatically enabled for users under 18 and include private account settings, the strictest messaging controls, restrictions on sensitive content, limited tagging and mentions to people they follow, daily reminders after 60 minutes of use and sleep mode between 10.00 pm and 7.00 am. Teenagers under the age of 16 require parental approval to relax any of these protections.
"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, technological industries, and government. That is the fundamental premise of today's summit, a hands-on walk through of parental supervision tools and Teen Accounts. We appreciate Meta for the collaboration and for creating a platform for these important conversations," said Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, Honourable Minister for Women Affairs and Social Development.
Meta also highlighted enhanced parental supervision tools designed to give families greater oversight of teenagers' online activities. The features allow parents to receive notifications when their child reports content, view insights into who their teenager has been messaging, set daily time limits for Instagram, schedule breaks during specific periods and monitor the age-appropriate content topics their teenagers choose to engage with.
"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 from this laudable summit," said Ayodele Olawande, Honourable Minister for Youth Development.
The summit concluded with a series of conversations focused on strengthening partnerships, sharing knowledge and advancing collective action to improve online safety and digital wellbeing for young people across Nigeria.
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