G7 Global Principles Back Our Call: Time for the African Union to Lead on Child Online Safety!
Dear Supporters,
Thank you for the growing momentum behind this petition! With over 1,000 verified signatures already, parents, educators, and advocates across Africa are making it clear: our children deserve protection in the digital world.
We have new international backing that reinforces what this petition demands. In May/June 2026, the G7 Digital and Technology Ministers adopted the Common Set of Principles defining a safer and more secure digital space for minors. These principles represent a major global consensus on protecting children and adolescents online and they align well with our calls to the African Union.
Key Alignments with the G7 Principles:
Minimum Age Protections & Age Assurance (G7 Principle 1): The G7 emphasizes robust, privacy-preserving, rights-respecting age assurance to shield minors from high-risk services like addictive social media. This directly supports our demand for a binding continental minimum age of 16 for social media access, with solutions tailored to African realities.
Safety by Design and Protective Defaults (G7 Principle 2): The G7 calls for protective default settings, parental controls, limits on compulsive features, and recommendation systems that prioritize age-appropriate content over endless engagement. This mirrors our push for child- and safety-by-design standards across platforms operating in Africa.
Preventing Exploitation (G7 Principle 3): Strong commitments to stop child sexual abuse material (including AI-generated), non-consensual intimate imagery, grooming, and related harms core issues highlighted in our petition.
Parental Empowerment, Digital Literacy & Skills (G7 Principles 4 & 5): The G7 stresses easy-to-use parental tools, comprehensive education, screen-time management, and critical digital skills so children can thrive safely. This complements our calls for continent-wide literacy programs and family empowerment.
Risk Management, Cooperation & Evidence-Based Action (G7 Principles 6 & 7): The G7 urges ongoing risk assessment, transparency, stakeholder collaboration (including with governments, researchers, parents, and civil society), and an African-style eSafety Commission to enforce standards and monitor harms.
The G7 document explicitly acknowledges the same risks we face daily in Africa: excessive screen time, mental health impacts, algorithmic manipulation, and emerging threats from generative AI. While Africa has the world’s youngest population and rapid digital growth, we also have the AU Child Online Safety and Empowerment Policy (2024) as a foundation.
This is our moment to turn global principles and AU commitments into real, enforceable action. Australia’s successful under-16 ban shows what’s possible. Africa can and must lead by adapting these approaches to our contexts, protecting childhood while harnessing digital opportunities.
To the AU Commission, Chairperson, and Member States: The world is watching. Heed the G7’s framework, listen to African families, and deliver the binding protocol, eSafety Commission, and coordinated protections our children urgently need.
If you haven’t signed yet, please do so now and share widely. Every signature amplifies our voice. Together, we can create An Africa Fit For Children.
Thank you for standing with Africa’s children.
Child Online Africa (COA)
Shaping Africa’s Future Online.