Dilemma of Child Actors and the Nigerian Video Film Industry

Demands on the actors include ability to interpret the writer's scripts, memorise the lines, and be at rehearsals anywhere, anytime, and anyhow; obvious dilemma is associated with the involvement of child actors. A child has the right to survival and development, education, leisure, amongst others, which are to be undertaken under the guidance, supervision, and care of parents. If a child actor has a dutiful parent or guardian, effectiveness may be attained in creating a balance between acting and other areas of needs; without a conscientious parent, where the child actor is overwhelmed by the acting environment, his education may suffer even as he can commit himself to the lifestyle of the make-believe world of acting. Drawing from two child actresses in Nigeria, this chapter exemplifies the dilemma of child actors and the challenge it poses to such child rights. It offers suggestions on how the effect of the dilemma could be resolved.

Transient Marriages, Child Rights Abuses, and Mediatic Gap

A few abusive occurrences in the Third World escape the lenses of the media, portending danger to our collective existence. One such social ill that defied the radar of news coverage is the growing transient consummation and abortion of conjugal relationship implicating male gender and instantiating abuses affecting the children from such relationships. Regrettably, the ‘hit and run parenthood' posture attendant of this practice often populate the crime cells cross-culturally and raises the probability of social dislocation laden with colossal cost to societies. Consequently, this chapter attempts to descriptively investigate the depth of this sexual pervasion and the predicaments of children raised under such milieu. A passionate appeal is thus made to galvanize dissuasive participation in such practices and to generate more media attention in order to alleviate the excruciating socio-economic condition and discourage crime among the affected children.

Perception on Child Rights Protection and Media Performance Among Kuje Internally Displaced Persons' Camp, Abuja, Nigeria

This essay examines media and child rights protection in Nigeria, using Kuje IDPs Camp in Abuja, FCT as a case study. It argues that the media has important and indispensable roles to play in enabling the promotion of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Nigeria's Child Rights Act, 2003. The study adopted the qualitative method through interviews and focus group discussions conducted at the Kuje IDPs Camp. Findings suggest that the Nigerian government is not committed to implementing the prescription of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Child Rights Act, thus further jeopardizing the already fractured rights of the of children in IDPs camps in Nigeria. Similarly, the media is not paying attention to the plight of the displaced children. The prescriptions advanced in this study as well as the conclusions reached are relevant for policy makers at the national, regional, and international levels responsible for the rights of the children, especially the Nigerian child.

Media and Child Rights in Africa

This chapter describes Kenyan media narratives and portrayals of children and their rights. The chapter examines how Kenyan media frame child rights stories. Through qualitative content analysis of child stories in selected Kenyan media platforms, the authors interrogated what these narratives tell us about how children and their rights are viewed and the implications of the media frames used. Findings showed that child rights stories are yet to receive the comprehensive coverage needed. The findings further indicated that Kenyan media framed the child in stereotypical and patriarchal ways with the voice of the child most times left out. In addition, many of the stories analysed were found to lack depth, context, and link to child rights. Some of the challenges that hamper effective media coverage include inadequate training on child rights reporting, lack of media desks tackling children stories, and insufficient knowledge on child rights.

Mainstreaming Children in Development

Children rights feature prominently in global news discourse as children continue to suffer abuse in an increasingly insensitive world. The theme of the 2018 Day of the African Child “Leave No Child Behind in Development” underscored the urgency of mainstreaming children rights in development programs. Arising from the media discourse generated around this event, this chapter employs a thematic frame analytic approach to interrogate how six mainstream East African newspapers framed issues around the theme. Selected stories were content-analyzed for themes and related frames underpinning the place of children in development discourse within the region. Findings depict a media discourse recognizing children as the future of Africa yet still ‘passive' players in development occasioned by socio-economic and cultural barriers.

Media and Cultural Contents for Early Childhood Education in Nigeria

The media have become major players in the socialization of children in modern African societies. Television, in particular, and its related products are at the center stage of early childhood education. Due to the attractive nature of television, children get fascinated as early as 3 months old. Thus, television begins to influence children's learning processes from the cradle. However, there emerges a conflict between media reception and social realities around children, creating a learning dissonance in them. This chapter explores the learning dissonance in children and the impact this has on early childhood education in Nigeria, in particular. It also attempts suggestions on how the situation could be redressed to the advantage of children in their early education.

Child Swaddling or Back Wrapping During Street Trading

The study is premised on social responsibility and social epidemiological theories and examined the exposure of back-wrapped babies to health risk during street trading. Data were collected using structured face-to-face interviews and snowballing techniques among 228 Street trading women (with children aged ≤ 11 months), in one local government area of Ogun State, Nigeria. Data analyses involved univariate and multivariate methods. The results show that 58.3% of women interviewed wrapped their babies at their back while trading on the streets, ≥80% were not aware of any campaign against baby back-wrapping, 35% viewed baby back-wrapping as medicinal for the baby, and as traditional practice (59.2%). The multivariate analysis revealed that children wrapped while trading on the street are at higher risk of exposure to illness than those not back wrapped (OR=1.778, p=0.042). The authors suggested media campaign against back-wrapping baby while trading on the street to reduce exposure to diseases, mortalities and possibly achievement of sustainable development goal (SDG-3).

Child Protection and Development in Nigeria

It is unarguably true that one of the social institutions from which children need protection is the media. This is because some media content violates and poses a harmful influence on their development. The media has been accused of being weak in protecting the rights of Nigerian children from the standpoint of the content it disseminates. This chapter focuses on the power of the media to advocate for the child's rights and shape the childhood process through its content. The study discovered that media outlets are not predisposed to reporting issues regarding child rights but rather place more attention on entertainment programmes that attract big sponsors. The study recommends that media content should focus on promoting child rights issues in Nigeria.

Displacement and Children's Rights

This chapter examines the relationship amongst displacement, education, and sustainable national development. It pays attention to the effects of displacement on the rights of children to education in Nigeria. Data for the study were obtained via in-depth interviews from key informants and focus group discussions (FGDs) amongst internally displaced women in a government-managed and faith-based IDP camps in the Adamawa State as well as informal settlements in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja on the quality of education offered in the camps. Findings from the study show that wide gaps exist between the education received by displaced children and the expectations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The study argues that the educational exclusivity of displaced children would have adverse effects on the sustainable development of the Nigerian state as it would decrease awareness of values about their civic duties needed for sustainable development. It thus recommends for increased media advocacy in pushing for better implementation of inclusive education in Nigeria.

Public and Stakeholders' Perceptions of Newspaper Coverage of Child Labour in Nigeria

The chapter explored public and stakeholder perceptions of media coverage of child labour in Nigeria. It has been observed that most studies are deficient in information on the interplay between media coverage of children issues and public perception of such coverage. This study therefore adopted the convergent mixed method design to elicit responses from audiences. Respondents were drawn from Babcock University on the assumption that individuals are literate enough to understand newspaper reports. Civil society organizations across Nigeria that deal specifically with children issues and some State Ministries of Women Affairs were sampled. The survey showed that people have knowledge of child labour issues from newspapers which in turn affect their attitude; however, their reactions to the reports are moderately favourable to the cause of abused children. It was recommended that newspapers give more coverage to child labour issues so that the public will have more knowledge and in turn make informed decisions.