As the world observes the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria, Monday, said digital violence needs to be officially recognised and included in national security, protection, and gender-based violence reporting systems.
The national director, SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria, Eghosa Erhumwunse, in a press statement issued in Abuja, said the digital space, which should provide learning and connection, has become a platform for exploitation, abuse, and fear.
He said for over a decade, Nigeria has seen a troubling increase in school and community abductions. More than 1,680 children have been forcibly taken, and recent incidents bring that number close to 2,500.
“The combination of physical abductions and digital exploitation has a disproportionate effect on children without parental care, the group that SOS Children’s Villages aims to protect.
“For these children, trauma from loss now mixes with threats from online predators, grooming, identity misuse, and digital sexual exploitation.
“The vulnerabilities that once made them targets in the physical world are now exploited in the digital sphere, where some are groomed, trafficked through screens, and dehumanised for profit.
“SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria firmly states that digital violence is real violence, and abduction is not an isolated crime, it shows deeper failures in child protection.
“As a child-centered organization with decades of experience supporting those at risk of losing parental care, we call for immediate, coordinated, and unwavering national actions.
“Schools must be secured as safe places for learning. Online spaces need regulation and monitoring with real accountability.
“Survivors should be protected, and perpetrators must face justice.
“We urge the Federal and State Governments to declare the protection of women and vulnerable children a national security priority.
“We ask law enforcement agencies to pursue and prosecute abductors and digital predators without delay. We call on legislators to fix legal gaps that allow technology-facilitated violence,” he said.
