Parents must take greater responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of their children rather than leaving the responsibility largely to schools, education and child-safety experts have said.
The experts spoke at Child Safety Outreach 3.0, the third annual child safety outreach convened by Adejumoke Sangolana, founder of SafeKids Foundation, where speakers called for greater parental involvement and stronger safety systems to protect children at home, in schools and increasingly in digital environments.
The World Health Organization estimates that up to 1 billion children aged two to 17 experience some form of physical, emotional or sexual violence or neglect globally each year. At home, nearly 400 million children under five, about six in 10 children in that age group, regularly endure psychological aggression or physical punishment.
Speaking at the event, Funmi Okeowo, retired Tutor-General and Permanent Secretary of Education District IV under the Lagos State Ministry of Education, said parents need to be more intentional about understanding what their children experience both at home and outside the home.
‘Parents have a lot to do. They have to be more involved in the lives of their children,’ Okeowo said.
According to her, the home remains a child’s first learning environment, making parental involvement critical to preventing situations that could put children at risk.
She urged parents to pay attention to changes in their children’s behaviour and respond quickly when they notice signs that something may be wrong.
Okeowo also advocated age-appropriate sex education from as early as three years old, saying parents should teach children to recognise inappropriate contact and speak up when they feel unsafe.
The speakers’ concerns reflect a broader child-protection challenge that requires cooperation among parents, schools and other stakeholders. The WHO defines child maltreatment to include physical, sexual and psychological or emotional violence, as well as neglect, with such harm often occurring in the home but also in schools and other settings.
But the expansion of children’s lives into digital spaces is creating another layer of risk for parents and schools to manage.
Bolanle Edwards, founder of Strap and Safe Child Foundation, drew attention to the dangers children can encounter online, particularly the possibility of exploitation by unscrupulous individuals who may gain access to them through digital platforms.
Edwards said safeguarding requires adults to recognise potential hazards early, including identifying ‘unsafe acts or unsafe conditions’ that could expose a child to harm.
Her intervention broadened the conversation beyond conventional concerns about physical safety. As children spend more time online, their interactions increasingly extend beyond the immediate supervision of parents and teachers, exposing them to people and content that may be difficult for adults to monitor.
This means a child could be physically safe at home or in school and still face risks through interactions taking place on phones, social media and other digital platforms.
The scale of online vulnerability is significant. Figures provided from UNICEF indicate that about 20 million children across 21 countries experienced online sexual exploitation or abuse within a single year, adding to the wider burden of violence already affecting children globally.
Edwards’ comments reinforced calls for parents to remain involved in their children’s lives beyond knowing where they are physically, by also paying attention to the environments and interactions they encounter online.
According to Sangolana, the need to educate adults became clear when her organisation began its safety initiative.
She said the programme initially started around the promotion of a safety book but evolved after organisers realised that children could not be effectively protected without educating the adults responsible for them.
‘We realised that we needed to educate the adults as well because the children are under their care,’ Sangolana said.
The SafeKids Foundation has subsequently adopted a two-sided approach involving children and the adults around them, including parents, teachers and school staff.
The third annual outreach included lectures, a panel session, as well as practical sessions on first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and fire safety. Sangolana said feedback from previous editions had helped shape the programme and encouraged continued participation.
But parental vigilance must also be supported by stronger safety systems.
Also speaking at the event, Jamiu Badmos, founder of the Foundation for Sustainability, Excellence and Human Development (FESHD), said child safety should be treated as a systems issue, rather than as something addressed only after an incident occurs.
Badmos said schools and other institutions need to understand their vulnerabilities and establish appropriate standards and risk-assessment processes.
‘Safeguarding failure is a system failure,’ Badmos said, arguing that organisations need to move beyond reactive responses towards preventive, proactive and predictive approaches.
He also linked child safety to wider issues affecting children’s mental wellbeing, including sleep, attention, physical activity and their growing interaction with online platforms and chatbots.
The different interventions underscored the increasingly shared nature of safeguarding. While schools are expected to maintain appropriate safety systems, speakers argued that these measures cannot substitute for parents knowing their children, observing changes in behaviour and remaining involved in both their physical and digital lives.
For Sangolana, the broader objective is to create a culture in which safety becomes part of everyday life rather than a response to emergencies.
She said the programme will continue to evolve, with organisers planning a fourth edition and using feedback from parents, schools and other participants to improve future outreach.