The Internet Has No Boundaries, And That’s a Danger to Our Kids

Section 32 of Nigeria’s Child Rights Act establishes serious penalties for sexual abuse and exploitation of children. It mandates a 14-year imprisonment term for offenders. While the legislation explicitly criminalizes child pornography and emotional abuse, there is a blind spot in our legal framework: the unauthorized collection and storage of children’s images without explicit sexual content falls into a troubling gray area.

This legislative gap became evident when a Twitter user sparked widespread outrage by sharing a video compilation of his phone wallpapers, all featuring images of Baby Rayna, a popular child influencer. The backlash was immediate and visceral, as people instinctively recognized that a grown man saving multiple images of an unrelated child crossed ethical boundaries. Yet, when scrutinized under current laws, his actions—while unsettling—did not explicitly violate any legal provisions.

This disconnect between our moral sensibilities and existing legal protections underscores an urgent need to modernize child protection laws for the digital age. As children gain increasing visibility online, whether through family-run influencer accounts or casual social media posts, our legal safeguards must evolve to address new vulnerabilities that lawmakers could not have anticipated. The reality is that a child’s digital footprint can be collected, stored, and even obsessed over, often without any legal consequences.

The Baby Rayna controversy is not an isolated case but symptomatic of a larger issue. In another viral incident, a video surfaced of Nigerian schoolchildren in uniform singing Shallipopi’s Laho. The outrage that followed wasn’t just about the inappropriateness of the song—it was about the realization that many parents are unaware of what their children are exposed to until the internet forces them to confront it. If that video hadn’t gone viral, how many of those parents would have remained oblivious to what their kids were listening to? Worse still, the fact that the video was shared under the school’s account raises deeper concerns about institutional responsibility. Schools should serve as safe and controlled environments for children, yet this incident highlights how they, too, can be complicit in irresponsible exposure and the exploitation of minors for online engagement.

In a video circulating online, social media influencer Carter Efe appears with his young daughter in what some might describe as an innocuous moment—she plays with his chest while he responds with playful sounds. While the interaction itself might seem harmless in isolation, the decision to share this moment publicly raises concerns about the evolving relationship between parenting and social media visibility. Children are increasingly being positioned as participants in their parents’ digital brand-building. Given the nature of Carter Efe’s usual content, it’s only natural to question his motives for posting such a video. Was it a genuine father-daughter moment, or was there a deeper intention behind sharing it?

All of these cases reveal the same truth: the internet has eroded the traditional barriers that once protected childhood innocence. 

The case of Baby Rayna also highlights the legal loopholes and jurisdictional challenges in addressing digital exploitation. While the United States has robust cyberstalking and digital harassment laws that could potentially apply, enforcement becomes difficult when the perpetrator is in another country. The individual who saved Baby Rayna’s photos was in Nigeria, meaning any legal action would have to navigate complex international jurisdictional challenges. In an increasingly borderless digital world, where content and interactions transcend physical locations, legal protections often remain stuck within national boundaries.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, child protection laws still struggle to adapt to the digital age. While laws exist to combat explicit child exploitation, they fail to address the more insidious ways in which minors are made vulnerable online. Current legislation does not recognize the digital objectification of children, meaning that saving, sharing, or compiling images of minors for personal use—without explicit sexual content—is not explicitly criminalized. This legal loophole allows concerning behavior to persist unchecked.

The controversy surrounding Baby Rayna also sparked debates about parental responsibility in digital spaces. Her mother, who regularly shares images and videos of her daughter online, was accused of negligence for allowing such visibility in the first place. Netizens argued that by making Rayna a public figure, she inadvertently invited this kind of attention. But while it’s valid to question how much of a child’s life should be shared online, this does not absolve the Twitter user of his disturbing behavior.

There is a dangerous tendency to shift the blame onto parents rather than hold individuals accountable for inappropriate conduct. Should parents be mindful of what they post? Absolutely. But the burden of child safety cannot rest solely on them, especially when the real issue is the predatory behavior of adults who exploit digital access to children. A mother posting her child’s pictures online does not justify a stranger compiling those images for personal use. The focus should be on strengthening laws, social media policies, and digital literacy to protect children from those who seek to exploit their visibility.

Beyond legal measures, society as a whole must take a more active role in child protection. The internet has removed the traditional safeguards that once allowed parents to control what their children were exposed to, and new strategies must replace them. Parents can no longer rely on outdated methods of monitoring; they must actively engage in digital literacy—teaching children about online safety, privacy, and the potential dangers of sharing too much personal information.

However, individual efforts are not enough. Tech companies and policymakers must step up. Stronger legal frameworks must be established to criminalize the unauthorized collection and misuse of children’s digital content. Additionally, social media platforms must implement better content moderation and privacy protections for minors. Schools must prioritize digital safety education, ensuring that children understand the implications of their online presence.

Child protection in the digital age is a societal responsibility. The time for passive observation has long passed. Every child deserves to grow up without the shadow of exploitation, hyper-visibility, or digital objectification. The fact that laws still allow gray areas in child safety is a failure we must urgently address. Through advocacy, awareness, and decisive action, we can close these protection gaps because our silence in the face of these challenges only perpetuates harm to those we are most responsible for protecting.