CITAD Expresses Concern Over Increased Technology-Assisted Crime in Nigeria
By Rabiu Musa
HOTPEN – A Non-Governmental Organization, the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has expressed concern over rising cases of young girls falling victim to technology-assisted crime in Nigeria.
This, according to the organization will contribute negatively to the efforts to address and overcome the gender dimension of the digital divide in the country, which casts women on the negative side of the divide and makes it difficult for them to access and make use of the opportunities and benefits digital technology offers for educational advancement, economic empowerment and social inclusion.
The Executive Director of the Centre, Dr. Y.Z Ya’u raised the concern while addressing newsmen on Wednesday in Kano.
According to him “technology-assisted gender violence is a way in which technology is deployed specifically to harm women and girls, including harassment online, rape, kidnapping, and killing facilitated via interaction and use of digital technology”
Y.Z Ya’u noted with dismay how in the past 2 weeks very disgusting events are unfolding on the Internet, both of which degrade and dehumanize women and the individuals involved.
He explained that “The first was a posting of sexual escape of students of Chrisland, Lagos in faraway Dubai which went viral, leading to the suspension of academic activities in the school.” “The second concerned a lady in Ado-Ekiti who was invited to a hotel room by her friend who had arranged with his three other friends and not only gang-raped her but also posted the act on the internet”.
And a third case ” in which a lady was kidnapped for money occurred earlier last month in Abuja when a man the lady befriended on social media invited her to his hotel, only for him and his friends to kidnap her, demanding N50million from her parents as a ransom”.
He further said that “CITAD have in an earlier research found that gender-based violence online has been a major factor inhibiting factor for the effective use of digital spaces by girls and women in the country as they have internalized the fear that harmful content online has induced in them”, adding that “We have discovered that harmful content online is specifically targeted at female politicians and women in a career such as female journalists and academics, to discourage them from those spaces, thus furthering their marginalization in those spheres”.
“In all these cases, it is the country and society that suffer from this criminal misappropriation of the powers of the internet”. He added that “As learning, commerce, social interactions, and government services move online, it means that those left behind digitally or are unable to access and use the internet will equally be left behind in those other spheres”.
Dr. Y Z said if this menace is not addressed, It means that a large population of Nigerians is left behind. In this situation, Nigeria cannot achieve the sustainable development goals as most of them require effective deployment and use of the internet, and this may not augur well for the country’s economy.
He called on governments at various levels to set up a panel to study and propose solutions to technology-assisted gender violence, including proposing legislation on how to deal with it.
“The Federal Government should incorporate safety and privacy online in the computer studies curriculum of secondary schools”.
In addition, “the government should also come up with a national digital inclusion agenda that will address the many challenges that inhibit the effective access to and use of the internet”. “This will contribute greatly to addressing the various dimensions of the internal digital divide in the country”.