NFVCB to Improve Monitoring of Media Contents for Students

Ugo Aliogo

The National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) has expressed its desire to improve the monitoring of media contents meant for students through the media literacy campaign.

The Zonal Coordinator NFVCB North-Central Region, Jos, Paul Ailewon, disclosed this recently in Lagos at the Safer Internet Day (SID) event with the theme ‘Be the Change: Unite for a Better Internet’, organised by NFVCB and Homevida with the support of Google.

He regretted that there is a huge challenge for parents, especially in monitoring the media contents children are exposed to daily, adding that most parents have abandoned their duties as custodians because they are chasing other things “and they believe that when they buy these children technological gadgets, it is alright.”

Ailewon advised parents not to be concerned with just buying gadgets for their children, but should seek to guide them appropriately, adding that as part of the media literacy campaign, they visit schools, churches and mosques to educate parents about their own duties and what the children are exposed in the media.

“In terms of censorship and monitoring of these movie contents in cinemas, we have procedures where we do censorship of movies at our zonal offices nationwide. While for foreign movies we do them at cinemas where we monitor them and follow up thereby ensure that there is a high level of compliance and where we have defaults we put in appropriate sanctions such as fines and prosecution.

“We need parents to be alive to the contents that their children are exposed to as part of their responsibilities. We are setting up school clubs where students come together to educate themselves. From time to time, we will be coming to talk to them.”

The zonal coordinator called for concerted efforts to ensure that the media contents children are exposed to are properly monitored, stating that if not addressed there are inherent dangers in some of the contents.
In her remarks, the Chief Executive Officer, Homevida, Seember Nyager, said the organisation has been trying to create incentives for young film makers to produce movies that promote integrity. She explained that young people are the custodians of what lies ahead for them and that they are the most engaged in social media. According to her, they need to be given a good head start, while considering that they are in an age where they are effective users of the internet.

Nyager expressed hope that the initiative would be effective, saying that this is the third time of organising the programme and they have reached out to learners and students in various geopolitical zones, while anticipating that the programme would provide a platform to expand on their activities. “The entire aim is that they pass it on from one person to the other in what they do.”

“The other thing that is being included in the event is the web ranger. The web ranger is very competitive and we are hoping that through competition more will get to know about it. They will use that same tool that we are saying that they should be safe with to promote the message. It will be their tool for countering any type of negative message such as hate speech. We are so grateful to support several young people to create great movies that speak to these issues.”

Related Articles