The First Lady, Dame (Dr) Patience Goodluck Jonathan, and ITU-IMPACT Child Online Protection Champion will on Tuesday, September 3, 2013 host representatives of youths from across the nation to the first National Youth Online Protection Summit, at the State House Banquet Hall Abuja. The Summit theme which is, The Internet: Emerging Threats and Solutions for the Youth, underscores the importance of the internet as a ubiquitous modern day tool as well as its increasing vulnerabilities.
The objective of the summit is to discuss cyber safety; enlighten youths on cyber security and how to stay safe while utilizing online resources and also, to come up with youth focused initiatives and ideas that will promote safety on the information super highway.
Youths attending the Summit will hold an interactive forum with the First Lady while she will officially unveil the Child Online Protection (COP) Champion Website at the event.
Participants will receive online protection training provided by Google Nigeria, while 100 lucky participants will be offered scholarships for ICT training from New Horizons. All participants will receive the Online Protection Guide Book.
It may be recalled that on July 20 2013, Dame Patience was formally decorated in Geneva following her appointment as the Child Online Protection Champion by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT).
Speaking about the upcoming Summit in Abuja at the weekend, the First Lady stressed that youths must endeavour to inculcate a culture of safety while they are online. She further emphasised that it was important to protect young people from the negative aspects of the internet so that they would not fall victim to those who search the internet for easy preys.
The Summit is being organized in collaboration with the Ministries of Communication Technology and Youth Development.