In a panel discussion organized by Wakili.sha Initiative, an organisation that focuses on access to justice for children in conflict with the law, the experts noted that parents need to provide children with the right digital skills to address the risk it poses.
Margaret Njihia, a Child Psychologist, said although digital spaces offer tremendous benefits and opportunities for children, it is important not to lose sight of the undeniable fact that it exposes children to an array of risks.
“Children are mostly vulnerable and unsuspecting in this digital space because they are not yet mature and lack the capacity to understand the dangers putting them more at risk of online abuse. Online perpetrators know how to use pseudonyms to cover their tracks especially while grooming their unsuspecting victims,” she said.
Most of the unsuspecting victims end up sharing vital information with the perpetrators that make the perpetrators know personal information about them like home address, parents’ name, school etc. By the time they are meeting up, this child has already been cached and coming from a point of trust.
“Controlling screen time is very important, monitoring what your child watches is paramount, it is easier for them to get access to inappropriate sites at night because that is when the inappropriate pop-up starts appearing on the screen hence exposure,” she said.
A UNICEF report published in 2020 reveals that only 5% of children and young people aged 25 years or less; and just 13% in Eastern and Southern Africa have internet access at home, compared to 59% in Eastern Europe and Central.
These digital divides mirror broader socio-economic divides – between rich and poor, men and women, cities and rural areas, and between those with education and those without.
According to psychologists, some of the signs that parents can watch out for when their child has undergone something upsetting online include when the children begin to want to use their gadget away from the rest of the family, clearing of user history, general change of behavior, and change of language.
Joakim Kamau, an official at Child Line Kenya, says some of the perpetrators in digital platforms are children, a majority of them being teenagers preying on other teens or younger ones who tend to be more vulnerable.
“We receive a wide array of cases, sexual offences, emotional abuse of children, most child related issues, some of the perpetrators taken to court are children. It is an area that has been given a side-eye over time, and the children are not supported as they should. We mainly focus on the survivor and not the perpetrators,” said Kamau. BY CITIZEN DIGITAL