Advancing digital safety with Brain Builders Youth Development Initiative

Status: Closed

Country: Nigeria

Partner: Brain Builders Youth Development Initiative

Impact goal: 500 youth, 50 teachers

About the project

This project will educate 500 young Nigerians between the ages of 10 - 16 years on how to recognise and respond to online threats. This can be identity theft, misinformation, cyberbullying, and exposure to inappropriate content. Additionally, they will train 50 teachers across schools in Osun state on how to creatively integrate digital safety education into their classrooms. This will empower them to guide students in navigating the online world safely and responsibly.

Results

The Connected & Protected project set out to equip secondary school teachers in Osun State, Nigeria, with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to educate and protect their students from online risks. Its broader aim was to promote a culture of responsible digital citizenship across schools and communities, addressing growing concerns such as cyberbullying, digital scams, misinformation, and unsafe internet use among young people.

Through a combination of teacher training, student outreach, and community engagement, the project sought to build digital safety awareness and empower teachers to become Digital Safety Ambassadors in their schools. The approach combined capacity building, peer learning, and dialogue to create safer online environments for children and adolescents.

The project achieved its main objectives and, in several areas, surpassed expectations. Out of 575 applications received from teachers across Osun State, 100 were shortlisted for interviews and 50 were ultimately selected to participate in an intensive digital safety training. The sessions covered topics such as digital citizenship, cyberbullying, privacy, and digital identity protection, using lectures, role-plays, and group exercises to encourage practical learning. Each participant received a Guidebook on Becoming a Digital Champion Safely, a certificate of participation, and monitoring and evaluation tools to track their own outreach.

Post-training assessments showed an 80% increase in teachers’ understanding of online safety and their confidence in applying what they learned. Teachers committed to organizing step-down sessions in their respective schools between September and October 2025, extending the project’s reach to hundreds of students. Several participants also developed creative teaching tools to make digital safety relatable for young learners. For instance, Mrs. Muinat Fadekemi created the acronym SMART — Stop before you click, Mind your privacy, Ask an adult, Report any strange activity, and Take breaks — a simple framework now being used in multiple schools.

The impact of the training extended beyond knowledge transfer; it also changed perspectives. As one teacher, Mr. Abduljelil Azeez, reflected, he previously approached online behavior discussions with discipline rather than dialogue, but the training taught him the importance of empathy and trust in helping students navigate online spaces. Others echoed similar sentiments, emphasizing how the sessions opened their eyes to better ways of fostering safe and positive digital engagement among youth.

Alongside the teacher capacity building, the project hosted two community sensitization dialogues, one in Iresi and another in Ifon. These dialogues attracted over 300 participants in total. They brought together parents, students, teachers, and traditional and religious leaders to discuss topics such as online safety, responsible digital citizenship, and the ethical use of artificial intelligence. Parents and community leaders engaged actively, requesting that materials be translated into Yoruba to reach non-English speakers and asking for further collaboration with Parent-Teacher Associations.

The dialogues also led to powerful mindset shifts within families. For example, Mrs. Sururoh Adesina, a parent from Ifon, shared that before attending the session, she believed confiscating her children’s phones was the best way to keep them safe online. After participating, she realized that true protection meant teaching and guiding them instead. As she put it, “We parents must guide our children, not just seize their phones.” Her experience reflects a broader transformation among parents who now feel better equipped to support their children’s digital wellbeing through understanding rather than control.

The sessions also resonated with young participants. “Before today, I thought the internet was only for chatting and music,” said Muritala Adebayor, a student from Ifon. “Now I know it can also harm me if I’m not careful. I will take note of the lessons here and be cautious while operating online.”

Through these efforts, Connected & Protected successfully laid the foundation for safer digital engagement across schools and communities in Osun State. Teachers are now better prepared to lead by example, students are becoming more aware of online risks, and parents and community leaders are more involved in supporting digital safety conversations. The project demonstrates that digital inclusion must go hand in hand with digital protection. With the right knowledge and community collaboration, a safer internet for young people is possible.

We've published a blog about the project. Check it out here.

About the partner

Brain Builders Youth Development Initiative (BBYDI) is a nonpartisan and not-for-profit civic organisation dedicated to fostering socio-political change and community development in Nigeria. Our primary focus is on equipping and empowering young people and local communities to drive sustainable development from the grassroots level.

Visit their website.