3rd Africa Child Onlinе Safety Summit
17-18 FEBRUARY 2027 | DAKAR, SENEGAL
CONVENED BY: AFRICA CHILD ONLINE SAFETY ALLIANCE (ACOSA)
HOSTED BY: POLARIS ASSO, SENEGAL
3rd Africa Child Online Safety Summit, 2027
Africa is home to one of the world’s fastest-growing populations of young internet users, yet child online safety research, reporting mechanisms and policy development have largely been concentrated outside the continent. As more African children come online, protection systems including legislation, law enforcement capacity, platform safeguards and caregiver awareness are not always keeping pace.
Closing this protection gap requires more than isolated national efforts. It requires a dedicated, recurring and Africa-led platform where governments, technology companies, regional institutions, researchers and child advocates can work together around Africa’s context, evidence and priorities, and translate dialogue into coordinated action.
The Africa Child Online Safety Summit is Africa’s only recurring continental convening dedicated exclusively to child online safety, providing a dedicated African platform for governments, technology companies, civil society, researchers, development partners and young people to collectively examine the evolving digital environment and advance practical solutions for children’s safety, rights and wellbeing.
The Summit was established in November 2024 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, bringing together child protection organizations from across Africa to initiate a continental movement dedicated to creating safer digital spaces for children. Building on this foundation, the 2nd Africa Child Online Safety Summit, held in Nairobi, Kenya, in November 2025, significantly expanded multi-stakeholder collaboration, bringing together governments, civil society organizations, technology companies, researchers, educators, development partners and youth representatives.
The Summit strengthened partnerships, showcased innovative approaches, facilitated policy dialogue and reinforced ACOSA’s role as Africa’s leading regional platform for child online safety collaboration.
The Summit is convened by the Africa Child Online Safety Alliance (ACOSA), a pan-African alliance of civil society organizations working to advance child online protection through
advocacy, research, capacity building, policy engagement and multi-stakeholder collaboration.
The 2027 Summit: Responding to Two Defining Issues
As Africa enters a new era shaped by artificial intelligence, rapidly evolving digital technologies and growing global debates on children’s access to online platforms, the 3rd Africa Child Online Safety Summit will focus on two critical issues shaping the future of children’s digital lives:
1. AI and Children: How do we ensure that AI works for children, not against them?
Artificial intelligence presents significant opportunities for children’s education, creativity, accessibility, participation and future economic opportunities. At the same time, AI is creating
new and accelerating risks, including AI-generated child sexual abuse material, nudification, deepfakes, manipulation, grooming, exploitation, privacy violations and other technology-facilitated harms.
The Summit will explore how Africa can promote child-centered, safe, inclusive and responsible AI, including safety by design, AI literacy, children’s data protection, age-appropriate AI services, platform accountability and meaningful child participation in AI governance.
2. The Under-16 Question: Should Africa follow the global movement towards age-based restrictions on social media?
Governments around the world are increasingly considering or introducing measures to restrict social media access for children below the age of 16. While these measures are driven by legitimate concerns about children’s safety and wellbeing, they also raise important questions about children’s rights, access to information, participation, privacy, digital inclusion, age assurance and enforceability.
For Africa, the question requires careful consideration of the continent’s unique digital, social, economic and regulatory realities.
From Global Debate to African Action
The 3rd Summit will therefore provide a unique space for Africa to move beyond simply adopting approaches developed elsewhere and instead shape its own evidence-based response to the rapidly changing digital environment.
The Summit will bring together policymakers, technology companies, regulators, civil society, researchers, child protection practitioners, parents and young people to examine these two critical issues from an African perspective.
The objective is not to predetermine the outcome, but to create an informed, evidence-based and inclusive dialogue that can guide policy, industry practice and investment in child online safety across Africa.
The Summit will build on the momentum of Addis Ababa and Nairobi and convene stakeholders in Dakar, Senegal, to deepen continental collaboration and advance practical recommendations for a safer, more inclusive and rights-respecting digital future for every African child.
A key outcome will be the Dakar Declaration, capturing shared priorities and actionable recommendations on AI and Children and Age-Appropriate Digital Participation, including the ongoing debate around under-16 social media restrictions.
Join Us in Shaping Africa’s Digital Future for Children
The 3rd Africa Child Online Safety Summit 2027 is an opportunity for stakeholders across Africa and beyond to come together, share evidence, challenge assumptions and shape practical approaches to some of the most pressing issues affecting children in the digital age.
Under the two focus areas of AI and Children and the Under-16 Question, the Summit will bring together governments, technology companies, civil society organizations, regulators, researchers, educators, development partners, parents and young people to explore how Africa can build digital environments that are safe, inclusive, innovative and respectful of children’s rights.
The Summit will be held in line with the commemoration of (Feb) Safer Internet Day and Safer Internet Month, reinforcing the shared call for a safer, more inclusive and responsible digital environment for children and young people.
We invite technology companies, governments, civil society organizations, researchers, development partners and other stakeholders to partner with and participate in the Summit by:
- Sharing research, evidence, innovations and good
- Contributing to policy and technical
- Supporting meaningful participation of children and young people;
- Showcasing solutions that advance child safety and responsible
- Building cross-sector and cross-border
- Contributing to the development of practical recommendations for
Join ACOSA and Polaris Asso in Dakar, Senegal, on 17–18 February 2027, as we bring Africa’s child online safety community together to shape the conversation on AI, children and age-appropriate digital participation.
Partner. Participate. Shape the Future.
Together, we can ensure that Africa’s children are not only protected in the digital age, but are also able to benefit, participate and thrive in it.