NerdzFactory Business and Meta have revealed the launch of SafeOnline 2026, the seventh edition of their digital security program, marking six years of continual cooperation to gear up young Nigerians with the understanding and tools to browse the internet securely and properly.
Because its launching in 2020, SafeOnline has actually grown from a school-based digital security initiative into among Nigeria’s many regularly delivered youth-focused programs, reaching 54,718 participants throughout six editions, including 42,260+ students, 7,789 NYSC corps members, 3,326 moms and dads and educators, 1,220 Youth Ambassadors, and 123 Fellows, throughout Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, and Ekiti States.
SafeOnline 2026 represents a purposeful evolution of the programme, formed by a digital landscape that has actually fundamentally changed because 2020. Expert system is now central to how young people access info, create material, and engage online, and with that comes a new set of threats they require to be equipped to navigate. Under the style Structure Safe, Healthy and AI-Aware Digital Communities, this edition anchors its shipment on 3 focus areas: AI literacy, digital safety, and digital health and wellbeing. For the very first time, the program will broaden beyond South Western Nigeria to target all 6 geopolitical zones, to reach over 8,900 individuals, including 5,000 secondary school trainees, by the end of November 2026.
A defining feature of SafeOnline has actually constantly been its belief that young people are not simply the audience, they are the option. Trained Youth Ambassadors, picked and geared up by NerdzFactory, have actually consistently demonstrated that peer-led shipment creates the sort of trust and relevance no external facilitator can replicate. In 2026, this conviction deepens through AI Literacy Circles: structured, ongoing learning groups where teenagers engage with AI awareness, accountable technology usage, and healthy online behaviour as a continuous discussion, not a one-off session.
“6 years in and 7 editions strong, we are more persuaded than ever that digital security is a constant financial investment in youths. This seventh edition takes that even more, equipping them not just to stay safe online, however to comprehend and browse a world significantly shaped by AI.”– Ademulegun Olowojoba, Founding Partner, NerdzFactory Company
Beyond school and community shipment, SafeOnline 2026 includes a family engagement element, gearing up moms and dads and guardians with practical tools to support safe digital behaviour at home, and a policy roundtable assembling around 30 stakeholders from federal government, education, the private sector, and civil society, consisting of the Federal Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Youth Advancement, and NITDA. This policy hair ensures that programme results feed straight into national conversations on youth online security and AI governance.