Cases of bullying and abuse targeting minors are on the rise in the country, according to data from the Ministry of Labour and the Communication Authority of Kenya.
With minors easily accessing the internet mainly in rural areas, the state has moved in to formulate Child Online Protection to protect them.
The data indicated that 67 per cent of minors aged between 12 and 17 years are internet users, thus exposing them to sexual exploitation for commercial online trade.
According to Josephine Oguye, a director in the Children Department, Kenya was among the top countries in Africa in the use of the internet.
She said that with minors easily accessing the internet through mobile phones and tablets, they had become susceptible to online abuse.
Addressing the press in Lake Naivasha Resort during a consultative workshop, Oguye said that online predators were on the rise with many children being lured daily.
“We are working with the Communication Authority of Kenya and other stakeholders in coming up with a manual that will be used by the Ministry of Education in training the minors,” she said.
The director further said that some house helps and relatives were taking nude pictures of the minors and selling them online for movie making abroad.
She added that the online predators were now using ‘dark web’ to browse and lure more minors, terming the new technology as hard to track.
“Many minors whose nude pictures were exposed online have undergone through psychological torture and low self-esteem and hence the need to fully address this,” she said.
On his part, Dr Vincent Ngundi from CAK said that children were now spending more time on the internet, thus exposing them to online abuse.
He said that the COP initiative was a multi-stakeholder network meant to promote awareness of child safety online.
“As the regulator, the authority has a duty to protect the consumers of communications services by developing and implementing interventions to safeguard consumers,” he said.
Ngundi said that the guidelines for Industry on Child Online Protection and Safety were critical interventions as they provided the foundation for safer and more secure internet-based services.
He further said that children may be unable to discern the suitability of content they came across from time to time.
“The curiosity that comes with the discovery of new things may drive them to areas that may be harmful to not only their health, but also their normal psychological growth,” he said.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
