Protecting children online: ANTIC takes sensitisation campaign to schools in Far North.

The four-day campaign was flagged off Tuesday during a ceremony which took the guise of a workshop.

The workshop was focused on fighting against cybercrime and protecting children online. Several schools in Maroua were visited during the campaign.

Speaking on behalf of ANTIC Director General at the start of the Maroua workshop, the Technical Adviser No.2, Mebada Ekani Jean Pierre Alain, told participants that Information and Communication Technology, ICT, particularly the internet has emerged in recent years as an enabler of socio-economic development.

Mebada said ICT is transforming and reshaping all sectors of public life, bringing along benefits that span across improved productivity, transparent management of public resources, job creation, increased revenue levels as well as affordable access to information and knowledge.

He then explained that: “This is even more evident for children and youths, wherein the Internet allows pupils and students to access quality education and training, online gaming, AI driven platforms and social networking”.

Mebada noted that beneath the said benefits, lurk a number of dangers and risks inherent in the use of the technologies.

The ANTIC official cited cyberbullying, exposure to inappropriate content, online predators, malware, phishing and scams, identity theft, Internet addiction and exposure to harmful content and influences.

He cited a Pew Research study conducted in 2020, as revealing that 66% of parents in the US say parenting is harder today than it was 20 years ago, with many citing technologies – like social media or smartphones – as a reason.

In Cameroon, he said parents are experiencing a similar fate evidenced by recorded cases of child online abuse notably the publication of nude pictures or video clips of children online, especially from schools, cyberbullying, Internet assisted kidnappings and child pornography.

Mebada said the state of affairs has prompted the need for urgent and responsive measures to be taken to tackle the abuses posed by digital technologies and provide a safe cyber environment where children can tap from the full potential of the technologies for their personnel development.

For this reason, the ANTIC official disclosed that the state has taken a series of measures ranging from institutional to legislative actions aimed at combatting cybercrime and protecting children online.

He said: “On an institutional front, ANTIC…is mandated to ensure the security of the Cameroonian cyberspace and promote the safe use of ICTs for the harmonious development of Cameroon”.

“…with regard to Child Online Protection, ANTIC has over the years championed awareness raising campaigns among children and youth on risks and responsibilities they may encounter when using the Internet. The awareness raising has been carried out via the drafting and distribution of Internet Safety Guides during proximity campaigns in schools, radio programs and the broadcast of SMS messages,” he continued.

On a legislative standpoint, he said Cameroon now disposes a legal instrument that regulates and protects children’s online experience thanks to Law N° 2023/009 of 25 July 2023 to institute the Charter on Child Online Protection in Cameroon.

The Charter, he explained, represents a comprehensive framework designed to safeguard children from online harm and to promote a safer and more secure digital environment. 

“However, the effectiveness of this Charter depends on our collective ability to enforce its provisions rigorously and consistently and we can achieve this by building a compliance and enforcement framework for the Charter,” he added, stating that: “This workshop is an essential step in this process”.

Speaking further, Mebada told participants that the Charter on Child Online protection in Cameroon among other things “advocates the use of filtering techniques such as parental computer level filtering and network level filtering to limit access to or block Internet content detrimental to children”

“Mindful of the fact that neither of these filtering methods is 100% (one hundred percent) effective at regulating inappropriate content, the charter equally beckons on parents, educators, guardians, peers and the state to educate children and young people on risks and responsibilities they may encounter when using the Internet,” he said. 

The ANTIC official continued that: “This approach has been envisaged since it would empower children and youth to be able to recognize and avoid dangers, while equipping themselves with online literacy skills and reaping responsibly the benefits which the Internet offers”.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3653 of Friday December 12, 2025