Connected for Children: C-SEMA Builds Momentum for a Safer Digital Africa

Five colleagues. Four countries. One shared purpose: keeping children safe as their lives increasingly move online.

Maseru, Lesotho | October 2026.

Sometimes, a photograph captures more than a moment.

In Maseru, Lesotho, five colleagues from Praesidio Safeguarding partner organisations in Kenya, Uganda, Benin and Tanzania came together during the October child rights gatherings. Standing side by side in their Praesidio T-shirts, the smiles reflected more than a reunion. They represented organisations working in different countries, with different contexts and communities, but with a shared responsibility: making sure children are protected in a world that is increasingly digital.

For C-SEMA, the gathering was an opportunity to reconnect with partners, exchange experiences and bring Tanzania’s growing work on child online safety into a wider African conversation.

The timing was significant.

On the second day of the 48th Ordinary Session of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), the Day of General Discussion focused on violence against children and harmful practices in the digital environment.

The message was clear: as children’s lives become increasingly connected, keeping them safe online must become part of how we think about child protection more broadly.

But conversations about online safety cannot stop at awareness. Children need somewhere to turn when something happens. Parents and caregivers need support to have difficult conversations. Professionals need the knowledge and tools to respond. And systems need to be prepared to act.

Bringing local experience to a continental conversation

Children experience the digital world in deeply personal ways, It may be the phone they use to stay connected with friends, the social media platform where they express themselves, the game they play after school, or the first place they turn when they have a question they are afraid to ask an adult.

These spaces can create opportunities for learning, connection and participation. They can also expose children to abuse, exploitation, harmful content, bullying and other forms of harm.

That is why online safety cannot be separated from the realities of children’s everyday lives.

Praesidio Safeguarding’s work brings together evidence, community engagement and local partnerships to help prevent harm and strengthen protection. Across its programmes in Africa, this includes working with children, parents, professionals and other community actors to better understand and respond to emerging online risks.

The Maseru gathering offered an opportunity for partners to share what this looks like in their respective contexts and to reinforce an important message: digital safety is child protection.

For C-SEMA, that means linking prevention and awareness with something equally important, support when a child needs help, trusted channels for reporting, responsive services and stronger systems that can act on what children are telling us.

Our work in connecting children’s voices with action.

C-SEMA brings this perspective through its work with Tanzania’s National Child Helpline 116.

When a child experiences abuse or harm online, they may not always know what to call it. They may wonder whether what happened was their fault, feel afraid of getting into trouble, or simply not know who they can trust.

Sometimes, what a child needs first is someone who will listen.

Through the National Child Helpline 116, children and young people can reach trained professionals for support, guidance and referrals when they are facing protection concerns. This creates an important bridge between awareness and action: helping children move from “Something has happened to me” to “I know where I can turn for help.”

For C-SEMA, this is at the heart of meaningful online safety work. Technology may create new forms of risk, but the need for a child to be heard, believed and supported remains the same.

Representing C-SEMA in Maseru, Chief Executive Michael Marwa also participated in his capacity as Child Helpline International’s Regional Representative for Africa. His intervention to the Committee highlighted the importance of sustainable investment in child helplines and the responsible use of helpline data to inform policy development, national planning and State Party reporting.

Because when children reach out, what they tell us should not disappear into a database.

Their experiences should help shape the decisions made in their name.

Partnership across borders, protection rooted in communities

The reunion of partners from Kenya, Uganda, Benin and Tanzania was a reminder of what regional collaboration can make possible. The risks children face online may cross borders, but the solutions must still make sense in the communities where children live. Partners can learn from one another, from how they engage children and caregivers, to how they respond to emerging risks and connect families with support. Sharing these experiences allows organisations to strengthen their own approaches while keeping them grounded in local languages, cultures, services and realities.

For C-SEMA, being part of this network creates an opportunity to bring Tanzanian experience into a wider African conversation while learning from partners working in different contexts.

The photograph from Maseru captures a moment of friendship and partnership. But behind the smiles is a much bigger responsibility. Children deserve a digital world where they can learn, connect, create and participate without having to navigate harm alone.

Building that world will take more than one organisation, one country or one programme. It will require governments, civil society, technology companies, communities, parents and children themselves to keep asking the same question:

How do we make sure that as children become more connected, they also become safer?

For C-SEMA, the answer begins with listening to children, strengthening the systems around them and making sure that every child who reaches out can find a path to support.

Because every conversation about digital safety should lead somewhere. Every child who speaks up should be heard. Every disclosure should receive a response. And every step towards greater connectivity should come with an equal commitment to protection.

Prepared by C-Sema's Communication's Team.