By Tina Amanda
Wife of Rivers State Governor, Lady Valerie Fubara, has advised children in the state to be focused and not limit their possibilities.
Lady Fubara stated this while marking the children’s day celebration organized by International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Rivers, in her honour, at the NBA House Port Harcourt, with the theme: “For Every Child, Every Right”.
The wife of the Governor who was represented by Commissioner of Women Affairs Rivers State, Dr. Roseline Uranta, said children can be whatever they chooses to be in the digital world, if only they will remain focused and adhere to rules and regulations guiding the society.
She maintained that the digital era exposes children to lots of opportunities that can enable them be the best.
“All children needs to do is adhere to instructions, follow school rules and regulations, study hard, live honestly and always make your parents proud, by so doing they will encourage their parents to show them more love.
“Wife of the Rivers State Governor urges you never to limit the possibility of what you can do. You can be whatever you want to be and wherever you want to go, if only you remain focused, work hard in your studies.
“They should make use of the education their and teachers will give them, learn skills, avoid getting involved in crimes.
“Government duty is to provide enabling environment, good health care facilities, good schools once these things are put in place, theirs is to follow up and enjoy the things state government has provided”.
In his address titled: “Safeguarding the rights of children in a digital world” keynote speaker also an Educationist, Karibi George, urges parent, government, individuals, to be mindful of how children’s videos, pictures, academic performances are being exposed to the digital space as it violates the right to a child privacy which is a punishable offence under the Child Right Law.
“The enemy is not far away, contrary to the thinking it’s only strange that target children in the digital world or harvest their details for commercial purposes. Very often the rights to privacy of children are violated by those who are closer to them, notably their parents who post details of such children on social media, without regard on the implications of such post.
“These exposes children to unsavory characters, those who might want to kidnap them or pedophile. The fact that the digital world is interesting it is also a brutal world, so caution should be taken especially by those closest to them.
“This digital world is a place of learning, education, information, therefore government, individuals, schools, parents, corporations should allow children to operate in that world for their own enlightenment and edification with supervision.
“The right safeguards should be placed either institutional, safeguards that government will provide in form of laws, policies, implementation coordinators or taking personal responsibilities as a human being knowing that you might be going beyond your bounds or that what your doing may be declared unlawful and carries consequences.
“Such as having and sharing videos of children engaging in sex is an offence by provisions of cybercrime Prohibition act 2015 and it’s punishable with 5 years imprisonment or 10 million naira fine or both.
“We should know the implications of the interactions we have in digital space and be better informed and not to cause problems for one another” .
Chairperson FIDA Rivers, Adata Bio-Briggs, urge parents and guardians to educate, supervise children on exposure and activities in the cyber world.
“Most site have age limit, what we should encourage is parents supervising what their children do. There are Apps that tell what a child is doing per time and parent should take it upon themselves to educate their children, teachers should also, FIDA Rivers we have been doing that.
“We go round schools to sensitize them, to teach them what to share online and what not to share. Out there we have pedophiles who says it’s their lifetime ambition to violate children, we are trying to ensure we have a safe space in the society, there are various law’s enacted to save these children”.
Our Correspondent report that highlights of the event includes debate, quiz competition, drama, dance performed by various secondary schools in the state.
