{"id":346813,"date":"2025-08-18T01:17:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T00:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/?p=346813"},"modified":"2025-08-17T18:01:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T17:01:39","slug":"experts-decry-abusive-digital-technology-use-call-for-opportunities-maximisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/?p=346813","title":{"rendered":"Experts Decry Abusive Digital Technology Use \u2026 Call For Opportunities Maximisation\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
Experts have decried abusive use of the digital space by youths and adolescents, and made a strong case for maximisation of opportunities digital technology offers to improve their lots in the society.<\/div>\n
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The Keynote Speaker at the opening ceremony of the 4th Nigeria Conference on Adolescent and Youth Health Development held on Thursday, 14th August, 2025 in Port Harcour, Dr. Amina Ahmed El-Imam, made this known in her presentation.<\/div>\n
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El-Imam, who is also the Commissioner for Health, Kwara State, spoke on yhe theme of the conference,\u00a0 \u201cThe Evolving Adolescent and Youth in a Digital Age : Building Resilient Young People in a Changing World.”<\/div>\n
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In her presentation, she said, \u201cdigital addiction can lead to decreased physical activity and poor mental health.”<\/div>\n
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While acknowledging that \u201cenhanced communication using digital technology fosters social connectivity and opens doors for innovation”, she said it has its downsides, such as “cyber bullying, fraud, misinformation, stress, and anxiety.”<\/div>\n
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She, therefore, advocated that youths must build resilient through \u201cdigital literacy, responsible use of digital technology, mental strength and emotional intelligence.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Resilience, she explained, is \u201cthe capacity of anybody to adapt positively to adversity and change\u201d.<\/div>\n
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Welcoming participants to the event, the President of Society for Adolescent and Young People’s Health In Nigeria (SAYPHIN), Professor Adesegun Fatusi, said this year\u2019s conference \u201cfocuses on one of the greatest developments, dynamics and dilemmas in the annals of the world and development of young people \u2013 digital technology.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u00a0A renowned Professor of Community Medicine, Fatusi, described the conference as the biggest convening of stakeholders in the adolescent and young people\u2019s health and development field in Nigeria,<\/div>\n
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“Digital technology has so much potential for good and yet an open door to so many challenges”, he said.<\/div>\n
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Fatusi continued that the conference is designed to see how participants can be \u201cbetter positioned to harness the amazing opportunities that digital technology presents for a better future for our young people and nation, equip them with new knowledge, skills and partnerships to address huge challenge that comes from compulsive and abusive use of digital technology by some young people\u201d.<\/div>\n
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To ensure that the interventions from the conference are pragmatic and implementable, the Chairperson, Local Organising Committee of the Conference, Professor Omosivie Maduka, said, \u201cwe are organising this conference with the adolescents and youths across Nigeria. This is to know the challenges they face and solve them collectively.\u201d<\/div>\n
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The conference, which was organised by the SAYPHIN, was attended by youths and adolescents in Nigeria, academics, policymakers and supported by development partners, such as UNICEF, UNFPA, and Girl-Effect.<\/div>\n
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Experts have decried abusive use of the digital space by youths and adolescents, and made a strong case for maximisation of opportunities digital technology offers to improve their lots in the society. The Keynote Speaker at the opening ceremony of the 4th Nigeria Conference on Adolescent and Youth Health Development held on Thursday, 14th August, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":346839,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rivers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=346813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":346853,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346813\/revisions\/346853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/346839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=346813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=346813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=346813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}