<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: capitalize; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: nowrap; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" id="isPasted">PAPIRI:&nbsp;Parents of dozens of children kidnapped last week from a Catholic school in Nigeria are desperate for their release, with one father crying out that his son is so young he has not yet learned to speak. Armed gangs seized more than 300 children from a Catholic school in Nigeria&#39;s central-western Niger state, in a resurgence of the mass kidnappings that have long harrowed Africa&#39;s most populous country. The same week, 25 schoolgirls were taken from another school, and 38 worshippers were seized from a church in the east of the country. At least 50 taken from the Catholic school, St Mary&#39;s, managed to escape, but more than 265 children and teachers are still being held. &quot;My son is a small boy. He doesn&#39;t even know how to talk,&quot; Michael Ibrahim said as parents of those still in captivity anxiously awaited their children&#39;s safe release. His son, who is four, suffers from asthma, he said. &quot;We don&#39;t know the condition in which the boy is,&quot; said Ibrahim, adding that the abduction had so sickened his wife that she had to be taken to the hospital. Some of the children abducted are nursery-school age. &quot;I need my child back. I need my child back. If I had the power to bring my child back, I would do it,&quot; another father, Sunday Isaiku, told AFP. Nigeria has a history of mass kidnappings, mostly carried out by criminal gangs looking for ransom payments and targeting vulnerable populations in poorly policed rural areas. Many of the captives get freed or rescued within weeks or months, while some escape on their own. 42 incidents targeting students Nigeria&#39;s first high-profile mass kidnapping was that of the Chibok schoolgirls in 2014, when Islamist group Boko Haram forced 276 girls from their dormitories in the country&#39;s northeast. More than a decade later, about 90 of those girls are still missing. Nigeria suffers from a persistent security crisis fuelled by jihadist attacks and violence by &quot;bandit&quot; gangs that raid villages, kill people and kidnap for ransom. US President Donald Trump earlier this month threatened military action over what he described as the targeted killing of Nigeria&#39;s Christians -- a claim the Nigerian government rejects. The religiously diverse country of 230 million people is the scene of long-brewing conflicts that have killed both Christians and Muslims, often indiscriminately. Four days after the St Mary&#39;s children were taken, no group has claimed the abduction or contacted the school demanding ransom. &quot;At this moment, what we want is to get our 265 students and pupils back and I&#39;m calling on the federal government and the state government to join forces,&quot; Reverend Bulus Yohanna of Kontagora Catholic diocese told AFP. &quot;Please help us... to see them back&quot; and &quot;reunite with their parents&quot;. For Ibrahim, the government is his only hope of seeing his son again. &quot;We don&#39;t know any other way to bring these children if not through the government. I appeal to the government to do all within its powers to see their children are back,&quot; he said, speaking in the local Hausa language. Health worker Cidi Mohamed, 27, recalled hearing gunshots at the school on the night of the raid and then seeing the kidnappers leave with the children. &quot;They put the children at the front and the back&quot; of motorcycles, he said. Global conflict monitoring group ACLED has recorded 42 incidents of violence targeting students in Nigeria this year, a decline from 71 in 2024. About 40% of the abductions involved demands for ransom. &quot;Fragmented bandit groups and other armed actors are the most common perpetrators in these abduction or kidnappings, while Islamist groups are far less frequently responsible for targeted violence against students,&quot; said ACLED.

This handout photo taken by Reverend Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) of Niger state chapter and Catholic Bishop of Kontagora Diocese on November 21, 2025 and distributed on November 22, 2025 shows relatives of a

Africa

In the past few weeks, armed gangs have seized dozens of children across Nigeria in a resurgence of the mass kidnappings that have long harrowed Africa's most populous country.

Parents of abducted Nigeria students plead for rescue

MELBOURNE: The Australian government has begun a public education campaign with tips on how to wean children off social media ahead of a world-first national 16-year age limit taking effect in December. Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said Friday that information on her agency&#39;s website, esafety.gov.au, explained the new laws and how to navigate them. Starting December 10, platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube could be fined up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) if they don&rsquo;t take reasonable steps to prevent Australians younger than 16 from holding accounts. Messages raising awareness will also be shared starting Sunday across digital channels, television, radio and billboards. &lsquo;We want children to have childhoods&rsquo;&ldquo;We want children to have childhoods. We want parents to have peace of mind and we want young people &mdash; young Australians &mdash; to have three more years to learn who they are before platforms assume who they are,&rdquo; Communications Minister Anika Wells told reporters, referring to the current de facto 13-year age limit for social media accounts based on US privacy legislation. The Australian age restrictions have already proved polarizing, with some experts warning the changes will harm as well as protect children. More than 140 Australian and international academics signed an open letter to the government last year opposing a social media age limit as &ldquo;too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively.&rdquo; Despite that warning, the laws passed with resounding support last year. The platforms had a year to figure out how to comply without foolproof technology available to verify ages. &lsquo;Very monumental event&rsquo;Inman Grant said the social media age restriction would be a &ldquo;very monumental event for a lot of young people.&rdquo; Her agency offered checklists and conversation starters about ways to make the transition, such as following an online influencer through a website rather than a social media account, she said. &ldquo;How do we start weaning them from social media now so it isn&rsquo;t a shock on Dec. 10? How do we help them download their archives and their memories and how do we make sure that they&rsquo;re in touch with friends and are aware of mental health support if they&rsquo;re feeling down when they&rsquo;re not tethered to their phones over the holiday period?&rdquo; she added. Australia&rsquo;s move is being watched closely by countries that share concerns about social media impacts on young children. &lsquo;A global challenge&rsquo;&nbsp;Denmark&rsquo;s Ambassador to Australia Ingrid Dahl-Madsen said her government would use its current presidency of the Council of the European Union to push the agenda of protecting children from social media harms. &ldquo;This is something that is a global challenge and we are all looking at how we can manage it best and we are looking to Australia and we will be looking at what Australia does,&rdquo; Dahl-Madsen told Australian Broadcasting Corp in Melbourne on Monday. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s so important that Australia and Demark and the EU &mdash; we share lessons, we compare experiences and we can push forward hopefully practical progress on this,&rdquo; she added. It was about &quot;protecting our children in this digital world that is increasingly complicated.&quot; The Danish government last week proposed legislating an age limit of 15. But Dahl-Madsen said Denmark would consider letting parents exempt their children who were 13-14.Australia has no similar exemption.

Viral

Starting December 10, platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube could be fined up to $33 million if they do not take reasonable steps to prevent Australians younger than 16 from holding accounts.

Articles tagged with "children"

Parents of abducted Nigeria students plead for rescue

Australia begins education campaign ahead of social media curbs for children