The Cyber Security Authority (CSA) has called for a national policy conversation on restricting children below 13 years from accessing social media, citing growing concerns over cyberbullying, online extortion and exposure to inappropriate content.
A Manager in Child Protection at the CSA, Martin Agyei Aboagye, said children as young as eight, nine and 10 years were operating their own social media accounts, raising concerns about their safety in an increasingly digital environment.
“Personally, I think we should take this thing seriously and make sure children below this threshold don't have access to social media,” he said.
He was speaking at the Child Online Protection Digital Parenting Forum, organised in Accra last Friday as part of the 2026 National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), which is being held on the theme: “Securing Ghana’s Digital Finance Ecosystem: Building Trust Through Collaboration and Cyber Resilience”.
The forum brought stakeholders together to discuss online threats facing children and the role of parents, regulators, technology companies and other institutions in promoting digital safety.
Mr Aboagye said the engagement was intended to equip parents, particularly those with limited digital skills, with the knowledge to identify online risks and take appropriate steps to protect their children.
The CSA is working with UNICEF and other stakeholders to develop Child Online Protection Guidelines for businesses, encourage service providers to provide appropriate content and support efforts to remove harmful material.
Safety
Mr Aboagye also called for safety-by-design principles to be incorporated into digital applications and technologies, ensuring that children's safety was considered from the developmental stage.
He urged parents who lacked technical knowledge to seek assistance in configuring parental controls on their children's devices to help monitor online activities and respond appropriately to potential threats.
He said addressing online risks to children required policy direction, effective implementation and collaboration among relevant stakeholders.
UNICEF Ghana
A Child Protection Specialist at UNICEF Ghana, Miho Yoshikawa, said technology companies and telecommunications operators had an important role to play in protecting children online.
She said UNICEF Ghana was supporting the CSA and private sector actors to develop guidelines to help businesses promote child online safety and prevent and respond to technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Ms Yoshikawa said the guidelines were intended to strengthen collaboration among businesses, government institutions and development partners, while ensuring that digital services supported children's rights and protected them from online harm.
She noted that digital technologies offered children opportunities to learn, connect with others and express themselves, but could also expose them to risks.
She further highlighted the importance of parents, teachers and communities in promoting child online safety, adding that UNICEF Ghana is supporting the development of a national parenting strategy to address violence against children and women, both offline and online.
