Pastor Olayide Babatunde of the Glorious and Divine Calling Ministry in Ayobo, Lagos, has called on parents to regulate internet use by their children as a strategy to curb sexual assault.
Babatunde gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.
According to Babatunde, use of the internet had contributed much to rape and defilement.
“Internet has done more bad than good and has corrupted the minds of our little ones.
“What do you want to say about a six-year-old girl operating her mother’s phone and dancing stark naked while videoing herself with the phone?
“Imagine children between ages five and 12 years singing and listening to worldly music while viewing it on their parents’ phones,” the cleric said.
She added that some children watched porns and other illicit images on the internet.
“A five-year-old boy who sees a man lying on a woman in a movie will one day try it on an opposite sex either in school or at home.
“We need a serious re-orientation in the country in order to bring back the sanity of our offsprings.
“Gone are those days when children didn’t have access to iPad, android tablets and other smart phones,” she told NAN.
Babatunde also decried fake new spread on social media platforms.
“There is no way internet won’t be shut down sooner or later in the country with the high level of fake news parading the cyberspace.
“Some fake news are being spread by teenagers that are exposed to internet.
“For instance, incidents that happened in other countries are falsely spread by teenagers stating that such happened in Nigeria without taking into cognizance consequences of spreading such fake news.”
The pastor appealed to parents to be watchful of what their children were being exposed to on the internet.
“Parents should stop giving phones to their little children all in the name of pampering.”
According to the pastor, internet is a powerful weapon which must be kept away from children.
(NAN)
