Humanity progresses by the passage of information from one generation to the next. This transmission of information, in its content and form, is possible due to the inherent nature of the newborn child. The newly born child is a tabula rasa ( a clean slate) upon which the current generation writes all that has been learnt through experience, and pedagogy. Until recently, the current generation had enormous control over what information to pass on to the child (here, the child is used to stand in for the next generation), and the means to pass it on. This way, the current generation serves as a protective sieve for the new generation, filtering malicious information that has been learnt from experience, and has the potential to harm their innate makeup. In the same way, information that is known historically to be beneficial to the child is quickly exerted. Consequently, the current generation with all the experience guard and guide the child through the maze of existence until they have gathered enough experience on their own to be independent.
Today, through the exceptional opportunity afforded by the Internet, there is a flood of information that is easily accessible to anyone, including children. The guard that the experienced generations had over information has weakened, if not outrightly deadened. While it may be argued that an accessible internet means everyone, including children can easily get the help they need on almost everything at an instant, there is the risk of exposing the child to unintended malice. This malignance has the likelihood of breaking a people’s culture. To see this more clearly, we will need to explore the child as an object of Freudian psychoanalytic framework (that is, the child as a psychological being), as well as the physical manifestation of the child, particularly from the African communal imagination. The role of the child in the Freudian psychoanalytic framework, as well as the African communal imagination will be treated more intensely in later articles. For our current purposes, it will suffice to assert that the child, both in its conception in the Freudian analytic framework, and the African communal imagination is foundational to the fabric of society; its culture and progress.
We therefore seek to explore the dangers that the Internet poses on the cultivation of the child in an African society. We discuss the structure of the Internet, and how this structure puts the child at a peril. We then summarise the major points from a talk organised by Evolve Journal to address this issue (listen here), and conclude with major lessons that became apparent from this discussion.
The internet infrastructure and how it exposes the child
The Internet infrastructure is a gateway to the world, especially that which lies beyond the immediate confines of an individual. It enables users to interact, communicate, and share ideas, thus, connecting individuals across the four corners of the world, bridging the gaps of distance, information access, and lately, language barrier. The Internet therefore allows its users to forge relationships globally, creating an apparent world where people can boundlessly socialise and access information of their liking and at their convenience. While such progressive possibilities are significantly beneficial for humanity, they also pose challenges and threats, particularly of security and safety. Generally, children are the most vulnerable, since they may not be experienced and knowledgeable in dealing with risks associated with the exposure to the Internet’s ‘indiscriminate’ information access, communication, and social interactions.
In particular, for the child, the Internet infrastructure is a window for cyberbullying, child maltreatment, emotional abuse, sexual exploitation, identity theft, privacy invasion among others. These malices are facilitated by the Internet’s goal of simplifying information access and social interactions. Predators—individuals and corporates alike—capitalise on the vulnerabilities of children and the operational loopholes of the Internet to actualise their sinister motives.
The problems leading from this exposure
A key problem that children are likely to face on the Internet is cyberbullying. Cyberbullying takes many forms, but usually involves the use of social media platforms, texts and websites to spread rumors and gossip (or threatening to do so), intimidating peers online, sending abusive or hurtful messages, and posting or sharing images and videos that may be harmful to victims, and gaslighting. Like its physical manifestation, cyberbullying can leave a child (or any victim for that matter) lonely and isolated resulting in depression, anxiety, stress and harboring suicidal thoughts.
One of the most effective ways to help children avoid cyberbullying is talking about it with the child when they first start using social media. Giving a detailed run-down of what cyberbullying looks like, how it might feel to be cyberbullied, what happens when one experiences cyberbullying and how to respond will help children be able to communicate when they experience it.
Parents and caregivers can also monitor and follow requests for their children’s accounts, control privacy and security settings including passwords, and control the content shared by the child to ensure it is appropriate.
Another issue posed by the unrestrained access to the Internet is grooming. Grooming is defined by the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) as the process by which an adult builds a relationship with a child, to facilitate online or offline sexual contact. A groomer can use the same sites, platforms, and games as children, spending time learning about the child’s interests and using this to build a relationship with them. Groomers use tactics like pretending to be younger, giving advice or showing understanding, buying gifts, giving attention, and taking the child on trips, outings or holidays.
The most used tactic by groomers is trying to isolate children from their friends and family making them feel dependent on them thus giving the groomer power and control over the child. Once the child becomes dependent on them, groomers begin to use blackmail to make the child feel guilt and shame or introduce the idea of ‘secrets’ to control, frighten and intimidate them. Parents and guardians should have open relationships with their children to be comfortable in communicating any such encounters with groomers.
These negative effects of the Internet on the child, together with others, can result in emotional or psychological abuse, which involves the continual emotional mistreatment of the child. Because emotional abuse is usually entangled with cyberbullying or grooming, it can be difficult to identify. Signs of emotional abuse that parents should look out for are; lack of confidence and self-assurance, the struggle to control emotions, difficulty in making or maintaining relationships, and acting in a way that’s inappropriate.
A child may not realise that they are going through emotional abuse, so when they consult a parent about it, it’s important that the parent listens carefully. The parent needs to affirm with the child that it was very wise to inform them, reiterate to them that it’s not their fault, as well as being very careful not to confront the alleged abuser but rather report the issue.
Although we shall not be delving deeper, it’s important to note the other forms of dangers that a child may face on the Internet. In particular, we identify identity theft, sexual exploitation, damage to reputations, online scams among others. The talk organised by Evolve Journal on May 27 2023 and summarised below discussed the elaborated points above, as well as the others we have listed.
Summary of the talk
We titled the talk ‘Children Safety on the Internet’ and engaged speakers from Internet governance and child safety space across the continent. The speakers were: Alphonce Odhiambo, the ISOC-Kenya Chapter President and a Networks Engineer; Jesse Nathan Kalange, an IT specialist and a digital rights trainer in Uganda and; Mauricia Abdol Tshilunda, CEO Data Works Communications —a program developer whose work entails providing life enhancing programs for children and youth. The moderator provided a brief introduction on what attracts children to use the internet and online platforms which includes entertainment, learning and other uses.
Initially created to accelerate academic research, the Internet was not designed for use by minors. However, as children are now increasingly becoming users, we need to regulate the content they consume to protect them. Such mitigations are necessitated by the need to adapt to the Internet and safeguard the future of the continent in the wave of disruptive technology. These should help the African child navigate the buffeting risks of online presence, including but not limited to negative influence, the effect of which threatens the very diversity of African culture. Emergently, it was observed that parents and guardians should practise cyber hygiene and lead by example; observe their children’s behavioural changes while using the internet and after; and create safe accounts that have double authentication to know the activities that their children engage in while on the Internet. Regulating screen times and being conscious of what children post online were also viewed as plausible mitigations. Other stakeholders, particularly governments and civil societies were also challenged to sensitise parents, children and society at large on safe Internet use.
Conclusion
In light of the above, for Africa to ensure children are able to use the Internet safely and for their benefit, an active role needs to be played by parents, society, government and other Internet Stakeholders. We plan to continuously engage stakeholders in bringing forth pragmatic measures to ensure children are safe on the Internet.
Written by:
Lucy Mwaura, Kenya, is Lawyer and Privacy professional that works at the intersection of law and technology
Paul Lavy, Kenya, is a Civil Engineer and Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2022 youth ambassador.
Osei Manu Kagyah, Ghana, works at the nexus of society and humans as a Tech Policy Advocate and Analyst.
Alexander Kwakye, USA, is concerned with building a society that enables the upward mobility of all and sundry.