By Caleb Ayansina

First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan weekend expressed willingness to partner with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT) to promote online safety of children and youths around the world.

Dame Jonathan stated this when she received her letter of appointment as ITU’s Global Child Online Protection (COP) Champion in Abuja, and noted that children and youths are the top users of internet globally.

In a statement made available by media assistant, Ayo Osinlu, she described as commendable the determination of ITU-IMPACT to protect innocent children and youths around the world from exposure to various forms of online abuses such as pornography, radicalization, trafficking and bullying.

Dame Jonathan lamented that despite the unique advantages of advancements in ICT, unscrupulous elements still exploit it towards compromising the safety and security of children and youths for pecuniary benefits.

The First Lady expressed her satisfaction at the plan of ITU-IMPACT to build a partnership of various sectors of the global community, particularly among the 193 member nations of ITU, for the purpose of developing strategies for the control of access to and use of the internet to ward off cyber threats for children and youths. She appealed to parents and guardians, especially mothers, to make it a duty to show greater interest in monitoring and controlling the engagements of their children on the internet.

Presenting the letter to the First Lady, chairman of IMPACT, Datuk Noor Amin said Dame Jonathan’s progressive leadership role and her humanitarian services singled her out to be “the ideal candidate to help ITU-IMPACT in its mission to push for COP awareness and the need for national online protection framework to protect the young and innocent.”

Also speaking, Director of ITU’s Telecom Development Bureau, Mr. Brahima Sanou noted that the “COP framework has become a crucial necessity to create a safe environment for our children, while they are on the net”, therefore, they believed in the ability of Dame Jonathan “to spread the message and push for reforms not only in the African region but across the globe.”