Child rights advocates and digital safety specialists have mounted pressure on the Senate to fast-track passage of the Child Online Protection Bill, warning that the continued absence of enforceable legal obligations on technology platforms was leaving millions of Nigerian children exposed to abuse, exploitation, and lasting psychological harm.

The call came during a webinar organized by Gatefield and Cece Yara Child Advocacy Centre ahead of Children’s Day, where stakeholders cited data from the Nigerian Communications Commission showing that nine out of every ten Nigerian children had experienced at least one form of online risk, with more than half of young internet users having suffered direct exposure to cyberbullying, grooming, or other forms of abuse.

Speakers warned that up to 31 percent of reported child exploitation content was never removed from digital platforms at all, and that harmful materials routinely circulated for extended periods before any response occurred. They described the situation as a major regulatory failure and said the gap between the scale of harm and the absence of enforceable standards for platforms operating in Nigeria was no longer tolerable.

The Child Online Protection Bill passed through the House of Representatives in December 2025 and is currently awaiting Senate action. Advocates said the legislation would, for the first time, impose legally binding obligations on digital platforms including mandatory time-bound content removal, child safety-by-design standards, compulsory 24-hour takedown rules for child sexual abuse material, stronger age verification requirements, and locally based content moderation teams.

Shirley Ewang, Advocacy Lead at Gatefield, said every second counted given the millions of additional children entering digital spaces each year, and that celebrating Children’s Day while failing to act on documented online harm was a contradiction the country could no longer afford. Esther Udoh, Chief Operating Officer of Cece Yara Child Advocacy Centre, described the bill as critical to establishing clear legal obligations and improving response times against harmful digital content.