The National Broadcasting Commission is engaging with major social media platforms to curb the excesses of their users, a senior official said on Friday.

Director of Broadcast Monitoring at NBC, Francisca Aiyetan, said that the commission was concerned about the potential for social media to be used to misguide young people.

“Every country is making efforts to regulate social media, and Nigeria also is making efforts because we know that there are a lot of things to harness from it. But if not regulated, it can also be a platform that will misguide our young people,” Aiyetan said.

She said the NBC was currently discussing with stakeholders on how to regulate social media, and that legislation may be needed to strengthen the law and factor in new technologies.

In the meantime, she said NBC was engaging with social media platform owners directly, such as Google, YouTube, and TikTok.

“We engage the platform owners as a regulator, so we know the faces behind these platforms,” Aiyetan said.

The NBC’s move to regulate social media is coming when other countries around the world are also grappling with how to deal with the potential harms of these platforms.

Last week, the NBC Director-General, Balarabe Ilelah, disclosed that the commission had sent a regulation bill to the National Assembly.

Ilelah described the ills of social media as a “monster” and said that the current law does not give the NBC the right to control social media.