Earlier this month, Facebook announced its partnership with Junior Achievement Nigeria and CCHub to launch SafeOnline, an online safety programme for students in secondary schools across the country. Starting in five cities this term and expanding rapidly to another five cities from January, the 12-week workshop is designed to introduce teenagers between the ages of 14-17 to the fundamentals of online safety and digital literacy. SafeOnline covers topics such as Managing an Online Presence, Social Media and Sharing, Public Wi-Fi Safety, Building Healthy Relationships Online, Understanding Password Security and Privacy Settings, as well as Identifying Misinformation Online.

Commenting, Simi Nwogugu, Executive Director, Junior Achievement Nigeria said: “JA Nigeria embarked on a digital transformation strategy in 2015 to take advantage of new technologies and tools for reaching our thousands of students across Nigeria. We realized the opportunities afforded by the Internet also came with some challenges, particularly for young students who may be more vulnerable online, so when Facebook approached us about SafeOnline, it was exactly what we needed to ensure our students against those vulnerabilities. We are proud to be a partner in this initiative and look forward to taking SafeOnline to all our schools across all regions of Nigeria.”

So far over 2,500 students across JAN schools have received this training in Lagos, Abuja, and Ibadan under the tutelage of the National Program Manager, Ugonna Achebe. We are excited about expanding into all our cities during the next phase. Feedback from the students shows that the programme has been very insightful and has helped them better understand how to protect their privacy online.