Students at Dennis Osadebay University in Asaba, Delta State, received a structured introduction to digital consent, online privacy and responsible internet use last week, as technology advocacy organisation TechHer held an awareness session on campus under its Coffee & Circumvention programme. The event, supported by Luminate, drew students into frank, interactive discussions about the often-overlooked ethical dimensions of everyday digital behaviour - from how apps harvest personal data to where the legal and moral boundaries of sharing intimate content lie.
Beyond Passwords: Redefining What Online Safety Actually Means
For years, digital safety education in Nigerian tertiary institutions - where it existed at all - tended to focus narrowly on password hygiene and scam avoidance. TechHer's intervention at Dennis Osadebay University pushed that definition considerably further. Speaking at the event, the organisation's Digital Literacy and Education Officer, Ugochi Ihe, framed digital literacy as an exercise in critical thinking and ethical judgment, not merely a set of technical competencies.
"We are grateful to the management of Dennis Osadebay University for recognising that digital literacy extends beyond knowing how to use technology," Ihe said. "It is about developing the critical thinking, ethical judgment and practical skills needed to navigate an increasingly complex digital world."
That framing matters. As smartphones become the primary internet access point for most young Nigerians, the risks they encounter online are no longer limited to viruses or fraudulent emails. They include non-consensual sharing of intimate images, coercive digital surveillance, the silent harvesting of personal data by mobile applications, and the blurred lines between free expression and targeted online abuse. Addressing only one of these risks while ignoring the others leaves students poorly equipped for the digital environments they already inhabit.
Consent Is Contextual - and the Stakes Are High
One of the session's most substantive contributions was its treatment of digital consent - a concept that extends well beyond clicking "agree" on a terms-of-service document. Ihe addressed this directly, stressing that granting someone permission to access or hold personal or intimate content does not constitute permission for that content to be redistributed, repurposed or shared beyond the original, agreed context.
"Consent is contextual, informed and ongoing," she said. "The moment those boundaries are crossed, it becomes non-consensual and constitutes technology-facilitated gender-based violence."
This is not a marginal issue. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence - which includes non-consensual image sharing, online harassment and digital stalking - disproportionately affects young women and has been documented across Sub-Saharan Africa as a growing concern. Nigeria lacks a comprehensive standalone legal framework specifically addressing non-consensual intimate image sharing, meaning that victims often rely on patchwork provisions under cybercrime legislation or civil law. Educational interventions like TechHer's therefore carry a preventive burden that formal legal structures have not yet fully assumed.
On the tension between freedom of expression and protection from online abuse - a question raised directly by students during the session - Ihe declined to treat the two as mutually exclusive. "Freedom of expression and accountability are not opposing values," she said. "They work together to ensure our digital spaces remain open and safe for everyone." That position reflects a growing consensus among digital rights advocates: that anonymity and accountability can coexist, provided platforms and communities establish clear, enforceable norms.
Digital Permission Bingo and the Hidden Costs of App Access
Among the session's most practically grounded elements was the Digital Permission Bingo exercise, facilitated by TechHer's Communications Officer, Jemimah Inyangudo. The activity used an interactive format to expose students to the privacy implications of app permissions - the routine requests that mobile applications make to access a device's location data, contacts list, camera and microphone.
These permissions are rarely neutral. A torch application that requests microphone access, or a simple puzzle game that requires location data, is almost certainly collecting that information for purposes unrelated to its stated function - typically for data brokerage, targeted advertising, or sale to third parties. Most users, including technically proficient ones, grant these permissions reflexively. The exercise was designed to interrupt that reflex.
Inyangudo described digital safety as a continuous, practised discipline rather than a body of knowledge acquired once. "Digital safety is not a one-time lesson; it is a lifelong practice. Every choice we make online - whether respecting someone's privacy, questioning suspicious content, seeking consent before sharing information or speaking up against abuse - contributes to the kind of internet we all experience," she said.
Students who attended reported genuine shifts in perspective. A Computer Science student identified as Agweye said the session reframed responsible communication as being as important as technical cybersecurity knowledge. Rosaline, another participant, said the consent discussion altered how she thinks about sharing personal content online. A 200-level student named Jude credited the Permission Bingo exercise specifically with making him more conscious of his digital footprint.
Building a Generation of Digital Citizens, Not Just Digital Users
The event also introduced participants to TechHer's Digital Champions Initiative, a youth empowerment programme that pairs digital skills training for young people with support for market women seeking to adopt digital tools for economic participation. The dual focus is deliberate: digital inclusion, in TechHer's framing, is not merely about connectivity but about the capacity to use that connectivity safely, productively and with an understanding of its risks.
That distinction - between access and informed use - sits at the heart of why programmes like Coffee & Circumvention exist. Nigeria's university population is already online. The question is whether its members have been equipped to engage with digital platforms in ways that protect their privacy, their dignity and their safety. For the students at Dennis Osadebay University who attended the session, the answer is now, at least in part, yes.
