Telecom
NCC Offers Online Parenting Tips in Wake of COVID-19
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has offered online parenting tips in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
Prof. Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman (EVC) of NCC
According to the NCC, the occurrence of Covid-19 has brought about the need for children to engage more with the internet and the various social media platforms.
It has brought a shift in the norms, putting more activities, including their education, online.
Online activities have acquired a new meaning and reality to Nigerian parents and children. Screen time and screen activities are the new normal.
Parents are constantly searching for online learning platforms, TV stations are providing more child-based educational content and schools are teaching via Zoom, Google Classroom, and YouTube.
Given this reality parents now have to contend with the overwhelming and scary possibility of a child being hurt by faceless individuals while surfing the internet, and a perceived inability and incapability to protect the child.
This has compelled all stakeholders, parents, caregivers, governments, and industry players, to actively pursue, create, and promote a safe online environment for children.
To mitigate the new challenges the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has provided online safety tips for parents, caregivers, and children.
Relying on the Global Online Safety Advice for parents and Carers and the International Telecommunication Union ( ITU) Keeping Children SafeOnline during the Covid-19 Pandemic, NCC said child, online abuse is being exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and countries are developing measures to address and provide significant assurance of online safety for children, their families, and society at large.
Online safety, NCC argues is not the non-existence of harm or risk, rather it is creating the atmosphere or opportunity to overcome the risks while enjoying the inherent benefits of using the internet.
According to the telecom regulator, the first step to providing online safety for your children is to anticipate risks, which will lead to appropriate control measures being put in place before a child is allowed access to digital devices or the internet.
NCC says parents need to, stay informed and educated about the use of their devices and the devices their child has access to; the various social network sites, and what happens on them.
They need to make their children understand that they know as much or more than they do and therefore be their go-to person for information on what to do with the device you eventually give them access to.
Caregivers should be trained on how to guide children in online activities and teachers educated and prepare for the avalanche of questions from children, on the use of various online applications or whatever information the children encounter online.
Parents, NCC counsels, should install child-appropriate apps/search engines and applications before they give such a device their children as it will protect the child from inadvertently stumbling into wrong sites that appear as pop-ups.
Parents should install a firewall, to act as content filters, making sure non-age appropriate content does not appear on the child’s device.
The Commission also said in the advisory that parents should also set timers on all devices used by the child, as this helps to create discipline and structure for the child; ensure clear time boundaries are set.
As children spend more time online, observe behavioral patterns and changes. Recognize unusual activities, actions, and reactions.
Where any change is observed, calmly address those changes and allow the child sufficient room to talk without being judgmental.
The home is a safety net for children. It is also the best support system that allows an abused child to recover from abuse and provides a means for managing post abuse trauma.
Ask how your children use the internet. Make them show you some of their favorite sites and discuss with them, make them aware that there are things on the internet that may upset them, and that they can always talk to you or any trusted adult.
If your child is using online platforms or programs for schoolwork, ensure a healthy balance between non-school related online activities and offline time.
During non-school hours at home, establish time limits around when and for how long your child can be online.
Use the available technologies — parental controls and tools to monitor online time allow you to measure and set time limits on device use or internet access. Be honest and open about why you want to use these technologies.
Make sure your child realizes that he or she should never give out personal details, such as name, address, school, and telephone numbers, to online friends they do not know in the real world.
Pan African Towers (PAT), a Nigerian infrastructure provider serving 9mobile and Spectranet, has appointed Echezona Osi as chief executive officer.
Echezona Osi
Adefolarin Ogunsanya, company’s, board chairman, explained in a statement that Osi would succeed Oladipo Badru, whose tenure lasted nine months in acting CEO position. Osi has more than 28 years of experience in the telecommunications sector across various regions of Africa.
Prior to his appointment as CEO, he had served as the head of network deployment at Airtel Nigeria, operations director and chief technical information officer at MIC Tanzania, chief technology officer roles at IPT PowerTech Nigeria, Rhino Niger Networks and Biswal Nigeria.
He obtained a degree in electrical/ electronic engineering from the University of Benin and a postgraduate diploma in data science and business analytics from the University of Texas.
Companies sending bulk international text messages, also known as Application-to-Person (A2P) messages, will now have apply for a licence that costs N10 million.
This is part of new rules introduced by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) aimed at cleaning up the system, fighting fraud, blocking spam messages and stopping money from leaving the country unchecked.
These A2P messages are the kind customers get from banks, online stores, hospitals and political campaigns, automated texts sent from apps to their phones.
According to the commission, the bulk international text message system has been poorly regulated, allowing misuse and invasion of privacy.
“The International SMS Service Ecosystem in Nigeria has not been fully brought under regulatory control. It has been observed that the excessive use of the Short Message Service has led to fraud, spam and illegal activities,” the NCC said.
The regulator warned that without action, the problem would worsen as more people use mobile phones and digital services.
To solve this, the NCC is creating a central platform, or gateway, through which all international bulk text messages must pass through.
The agency said this would help to monitor messages in real time, ensure proper fees are paid, and make sure the money stays in Nigeria where it can contribute to the economy.
As part of the incoming change, service providers must follow strict rules, including strong data protection, spam filters, and message encryption.
Also, they must also work with local mobile networks and make sure all messages come from a verified sender
The NCC warned that any message without a proper sender ID will be blocked and not delivered to users.
To protect users from unwanted texts, the new rules say companies must get clear permission before sending any promotional content.
The rule also says people must also be able to choose whether they want to receive such messages or not.
Companies are now required to keep records of all messages for at least six months and must clearly state all charges involved.
The NCC said fees for help requests, cancellations, or service info must be transparent and not include hidden charges.
The commission will issue licences to several providers to encourage healthy competition but may limit new licences if needed.
Only companies that show they can stop fraud and safely deliver messages will be allowed to operate. They must also regularly report their message traffic and finances to the NCC.
It warned that any company that breaks the rules risks getting fined, suspended, or having its licence revoked.
Offences like charging illegal tariffs, ignoring security rules, or avoiding taxes will be punished, the NCC said.
The commission added that the new rules follow the Nigerian Data Protection Act 2023 and support the federal government’s goal of strengthening cybersecurity and controlling Nigeria’s digital space.
The framework will also be reviewed from time to time to keep up with new technology and market trends.
MTN Nigeria has launched what it claims is the country’s largest prefabricated modular data centre, marking a bold push into the country’s fast-growing cloud market and taking aim at global giants such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Karl Toriola, CEO, MTN Nigeria.
The shift comes as demand for cloud services in Nigeria soars — driven by the uptake of mobile apps, fintech tools and e-learning platforms — while foreign providers have become costlier in the wake of the naira’s sharp devaluation.
“This is one of the biggest data centres in West Africa and probably one of the biggest in Africa,” said Karl Toriola, CEO, MTN Nigeria.
He described the new Tier III-certified facility, with locally hosted cloud services, as “transformative for the technology ecosystem in Nigeria and very supportive of the federal government’s agenda”.
MTN Nigeria, the country’s largest telecoms provider, has so far invested $120m in the first phase, delivering an IT load of 4.5MW. A second phase, set to double capacity to 9MW, is budgeted at $135m.
“We already have data centres that are running our existing capacities,” Toriola said.
“We will go to 9MW in short order, possibly 14MW, and we can expand even further.”
He said the facility would allow local hosting for tech developers, large enterprises including banks and oil companies, and government agencies — markets long dominated by foreign cloud providers.
“Multinational companies such as Netflix, Facebook and Instagram can also host a lot of their data here. That improves the quality of service and reduces the cost of storage,” he added.
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