Editor’s note: In this opinion piece, Refilwe Mokoena argues that children are vulnerable online and require both protection and meaningful participation, highlighting the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund’s (NMCF’s) initiatives that empower youth to shape digital policy, safety, and Africa’s future technological landscape.
Scroll through any social media feed and you’ll see children everywhere, creating, sharing, and shaping conversations in ways unthinkable just a decade ago. Yet behind the hashtags and viral trends lies a stark truth: millions of children are navigating digital spaces without protection, literacy, or power.
They are not just exposed to risks like cyberbullying and exploitation; they are also denied the full opportunity to harness technology for education and innovation.
According to a 2022 UNICEF Study, more than 70% of South African children aged 9 to 17 use the internet daily, but fewer than half have received digital literacy education.
This means our children are online, but often unsupervised, unprotected, and unheard. They are the most connected generation in history, and the most vulnerable.
It’s time to change that.
As the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, we believe children should not just be users of digital technology but leaders in shaping it. In August, the Fund embarked on a new initiative on Digital Safety and Child Participation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, aimed at giving children a seat at the table in shaping Africa’s digital future.
Madiba once said, “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” In today’s digital world, that revelation plays out not only in classrooms and communities but across algorithms, feeds, and online forums. Every day we fail to act, more children are left vulnerable and without a voice in spaces that define their future.
A Call from Africa’s Young Digital Citizens
Earlier this year, at the African Children’s Summit (ACS) 2025, young delegates from across the continent delivered a powerful message: “Nothing about us without us, even in the digital world.” They called for tighter regulation of harmful online content, stronger laws against online exploitation, and genuine child participation in digital governance.
Their voices are at the heart of the NMCF’s work. The Fund’s six-month digital safety series has thus far convened children, academics, tech companies, and civil society through a series of Brown Bag dialogues, child-led workshops, and storytelling projects designed to put children’s lived experiences at the centre of policy and innovation.
This approach is both practical and profound. It recognises that digital safety is not just about blocking harmful content or managing screen time, it’s about rebalancing power. Children must be empowered to influence the rules, systems, and technologies that shape their digital lives.
Beyond Protection – Toward Participation
Too often, digital safety is discussed through the lens of fear: cyberbullying, grooming, and exploitation. While these are real and pressing issues, they tell only half the story. The other half is about possibility, how children can use digital platforms to educate, organise, and innovate if given the tools, trust, and protection to do so safely.
That’s why NMCF’s digital safety strategy is built around two intertwined pillars: protection and participation. Protection ensures that the digital ecosystem, from policy to platform design, upholds children’s rights and safety. Participation ensures that children themselves have agency and influence within that ecosystem.
Working with partners like the CyberCulture Foundation, UNICEF, Save the Children South Africa, the Fund is creating spaces where children learn not just how to be safe online, but how to shape the online world responsibly. Through workshops on artificial intelligence, social media ethics, and digital storytelling, young participants will co-develop their own recommendations, a bold shift from being policy subjects to policy authors.
Storytelling as Digital Power
One of the most compelling aspects of this initiative is the Fund’s commitment to child-led storytelling. Storytelling is not just about sharing experiences; it’s about shaping solutions.
Take, for example, a 14-year-old girl from Limpopo who uses Instagram to mobilise community clean-ups, only to face harassment for speaking up online. Her story is not just anecdotal; it’s a data point in a larger truth: digital spaces mirror societal inequalities, but they can also amplify voices for justice if we build them with intention and inclusion.
This is why the upcoming Girl Power Meets Boy Joy Digital Justice Summit is a pivotal moment. Over 100 young leaders will gather to co-create solutions that balance digital safety with opportunity. Through debates, intergenerational dialogue, and policy hackathons, the Summit will culminate in a child-led Digital Safety Policy Brief that will go on to shape the Fund’s future advocacy and programming in the area of online safety for children.
The Stakes for Africa’s Digital Future
As African governments align with the African Union’s Digital Transformation Strategy and the UN’s General Comment No. 25 on Children’s Rights in the Digital Environment, the need to integrate children’s perspectives has never been greater. Policy alone is not enough; without children’s voices, even the best frameworks risk being out of touch with reality.
For the private sector, the message is equally urgent. Tech companies and media platforms must move beyond compliance and toward co-creation. Protecting children online should not be an afterthought or a PR checkbox; it should be a core design principle. Algorithms should not discriminate; privacy settings should prioritise consent; and moderation systems should defend, not silence, young voices.
The digital revolution is rewriting the boundaries of childhood. The tools of creation, communication, and influence are now in children’s hands, but so too are the risks of exploitation, exclusion, and misinformation. The question is whether adults will act fast enough to ensure that digital progress does not come at the expense of the most vulnerable.
The Fund’s work on digital participation feeds directly into the Children20 (C20), an emerging engagement track of the G20 under South Africa’s 2025 Presidency. Through this platform, children’s voices from across Africa are shaping global discussions on technology governance, online safety, and digital inclusion. By linking insights from our Digital Safety and Child Participation initiative to the C20 agenda, we ensure that African children are not merely consulted but recognised as experts in their own digital realities.
This work builds on the outcomes of the African Children’s Summit 2025, strengthening the bridge between grassroots experience and global policy. The Fund’s leadership role as Sherpa for the C20 track underscores Africa’s growing influence in defining what a just, child-centred digital future should look like, and we are proud to stand alongside partners advancing this vital advocacy.
Our Shared Responsibility
Madiba reminded us that our children are our greatest treasure. Today, that treasure is online, building communities, dreaming in code, and imagining futures we cannot yet see. The least we can do is meet them there, not to control, but to collaborate.
The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund believes that when children lead, the digital world becomes more humane, more creative, and more just. The task before us is simple but profound: protect their rights, amplify their voices, and trust their leadership.
Because children are not just digital natives. They are the digital leaders our future depends on.
The writer is Refilwe Mokoena, Child Safety & Protection Manager, and Anzio Jacobs, Programme Officer, Child Safety & Protection at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund
Views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the editorial position of News Nine.
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