Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, is committing $600,000 (about ₦810.52 million) to the TechSocietal Development Foundation to conduct Nigeria's first nationwide study of how teenagers use the internet. The company announced on November 4 that it is also bringing its Meet LEO child safety programme to Africa for the first time, with Nigeria serving as the pilot market.

The funding consists of $550,000 (about ₦742.97 million) in cash and $50,000 (about ₦67.54 million) in Google Ad Grants. Under the research project, TechSocietal will survey 2,000 adolescents across Nigeria's six geopolitical zones, deliver its Safety First curriculum to 5,000 teachers and school administrators, and train 200 community champions to reach as many as 10,000 parents and caregivers.

The announcement follows public consultations led by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), which found that 93.5% of Nigerians are concerned about the harms children face online — a figure that underscores how widespread concern about children's online safety has become in Nigeria, and the setting in which both new commitments were announced.

Tope Ogundipe, executive director of TechSocietal, described the study as a baseline for the country and said the foundation will go on to equip 15,000 teachers and caregivers to help young people navigate the internet safely. Because Nigeria has not previously had nationwide data on teenage internet use, the survey is designed to give the country a shared starting measurement — a picture of what adolescents actually do online that regulators, schools and families have not had before.

Meet LEO to Launch in Four States

Meet LEO, short for Learn and Explore Online, will be delivered by Tech Hive Advisory across four states, marking the programme's first pilot in Sub-Saharan Africa. Tech Hive will train 500 educators and youth leaders to set digital ground rules using tools such as Google Family Link, SafeSearch and YouTube Supervised Experiences. Those trained are then expected to pass the instruction on to an additional 2,500 students and community members. The rollout of the four-state pilot and the progress of the six-zone survey are the nearest milestones to watch as the work builds toward the 15,000 teachers and caregivers Ogundipe said the foundation will go on to equip.

Ridwan Oloyede, lead partner at Tech Hive Advisory, said the pilot puts "usable safety tools directly in the hands of 500 frontline educators and youth leaders," creating a multiplier effect.

Olumide Balogun, country director of Google Nigeria, framed the initiatives as protection without isolation. "Protecting our children must never mean disconnecting them from their future," he said.

Dr Vincent Olatunji, National Commissioner of the NDPC, called Google's support a significant and commendable step forward, noting that protecting children online requires collaboration among government, technology platforms, educators and families.

The new commitments build on more than $3.5 million (about ₦4.73 billion) that Google.org has directed toward online safety across Sub-Saharan Africa since 2020. According to the company, that support has reached 2.3 million Nigerians through 10 local organisations and trained more than 43,000 young people with Junior Achievement Africa — a delivery model of funding local implementing organisations that TechSocietal and Tech Hive Advisory now join.