Be tech savvy to protect children online, parents urged

Martha Conte, a mother of three admits to struggling with digital literacy.

Conte said most parents like her are very analogue in these digital times.

"Children are way ahead in the digital world," she said.

She is a mother to an 18-year-old, 16 and 6-year-old.

"The six-year-old is smarter than I am when it comes to the digital world. It has even gotten to a stage where he changes screens so fast that I sometimes depend on the siblings to tell me what is going on," she said.

She said when it started with her older children, she was able to have some control over them.

"I tried as much as possible to limit their access to different platforms, for example, we started with WhatsApp. I was trying to get a full understanding of what it was but now, I've lost count of the app available," she said.

Martha was speaking during the launch of the Kenya Films and Classifications Board (KFCB)'s Digital Parental Literacy Programme on Tuesday.

She was part of a panel discussing Parenting in the Digital Era, together with her daughter Fatima.

Fatima said one of the sneakiest things children do on most internet platforms is to clear history.

"So whatever you're watching, whatever you're viewing whenever you're searching, if someone wants to check what it is, it's very easy to just delete completely. Most times you can never find it again," she said.

She, however, said that the main thing her parents have been able to establish with her and her siblings is trust.

"It helped me realise that not everything out there is for me or appropriate for my age, and just being able to understand that, along with the trust really helps me to use the internet in a responsible way," Fatima said.

Martha said that parents with responsible children are very fortunate but there is still a need for digital literacy for parents.

"Parents need to even know how long their child is on the screen and we can't always delegate that to nannies and house helps," she said.