{"id":3140,"date":"2026-07-21T08:47:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T07:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=3140"},"modified":"2026-08-07T09:02:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T08:02:31","slug":"raising-children-in-the-age-of-social-media-the-new-parenting-challenge-in-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=3140","title":{"rendered":"Raising Children in the Age of Social Media: The New Parenting Challenge in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By Belle Ogigbah<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There was a time when Nigerian parents worried primarily about the friends their children kept, the books they read, the television programmes they watched and the places they visited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, a child can be physically present in the living room while psychologically living in a completely different world through a smartphone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A few taps can connect a Nigerian child to millions of people around the world. That access offers enormous educational and creative possibilities. But it also presents parents with a challenge previous generations never had to confront on this scale: how do you protect a child from harmful influences when those influences can enter the home through a device held in the child&#8217;s hands?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social media has become an important part of modern childhood. Platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and other digital services expose young people to entertainment, information, trends, celebrities and communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For responsible users, these platforms can be valuable. Children can learn languages, science, technology, music, art and other skills. Young people can discover career opportunities and express their creativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The danger lies in the absence of adequate guidance. Children are still developing emotionally and intellectually. They may struggle to distinguish between reality and carefully manufactured online images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social media can create unrealistic expectations about beauty, wealth, relationships and success. A young person constantly exposed to images of expensive cars, designer clothes, luxurious holidays and seemingly perfect lifestyles may begin to believe that everyone else is succeeding except them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The consequences can include frustration, low self-esteem and unhealthy comparison. There is also the issue of online bullying. Unlike traditional bullying, which may end when a child leaves school, cyberbullying can follow a child into the bedroom. Hurtful comments, embarrassing images and humiliating messages can circulate rapidly and remain online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Parents also face the challenge of inappropriate content. The internet does not know that a particular user is twelve years old. Unless safeguards are put in place, children can encounter violent, sexual or otherwise unsuitable material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet simply banning social media may not be enough. Young people are likely to find ways around restrictions, particularly when their friends are active online. The better approach is digital parenting. Parents need to know what platforms their children use, who they interact with, what content they consume and how much time they spend online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More importantly, parents need to talk to their children. A child who fears punishment for every mistake may hide dangerous online experiences from parents. A child who trusts a parent is more likely to report cyberbullying, inappropriate messages, suspicious adults or other troubling encounters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Schools also have a responsibility. Digital literacy should go beyond teaching students how to operate computers. Young people need to understand privacy, misinformation, online manipulation, cyberbullying, responsible communication and the long-term consequences of digital footprints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Parents themselves also need digital literacy. It is increasingly difficult for adults who do not understand the digital environment to guide children who have grown up inside it. The challenge is therefore not to keep children away from technology but to teach them how to use it responsibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Children need boundaries. They need screen-time limits, age-appropriate content and supervision. But they also need conversation, trust and moral guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The values parents hope to teach their children (honesty, respect, empathy, discipline, responsibility and compassion) must be extended into the digital environment. Social media is not inherently good or bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Its impact depends significantly on how it is used and the structures surrounding its use. Nigeria&#8217;s parents therefore face a new responsibility: raising children who can navigate a world in which the difference between the physical and digital environment is increasingly blurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The smartphone may be small, but the world it carries is enormous. The question is no longer whether Nigerian children will enter that world. They already have. The question is whether parents, schools and society will give them the wisdom to navigate it safely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Belle Ogigbah There was a time when Nigerian parents worried primarily about the friends their children kept, the books they read, the television programmes they watched and the places they visited. Today, a child can be physically present in the living room while psychologically living in a completely different world through a smartphone. A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,15],"tags":[299,770,59],"class_list":["post-3140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-viewspoint","tag-children","tag-parenting","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3141,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3140\/revisions\/3141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}