The school holiday survival guide on protecting children in digital and physical spaces
A child uses a phone during family meal time.
What you need to know:
- According to the government's National Plan of Action to Tackle Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Kenya, 2022–26, most children in Kenya have access to the Internet through a smartphone, tablet or computer.
- To keep our children safe during this long holiday, we must first admit that we don’t know enough about keeping them safe from the dangers that lurk online and offline.
Now that we have our children back at home where they belong, what are we going to do with them? This is a question that most parents in Kenya are grappling with right now. There has been a lot of debate by parents and guardians, with some scrambling to fill their children's days with activities, while others playfully grumble about how their food stocks would be quickly depleted.
As a parent of a pre-teen, I've not been immune to these worries. But there's something else that should worry us equally, if not more: the predators online and offline to whom our children will be exposed.
Research has repeatedly shown us that our homes, to paraphrase poet Warsan Shire, can be the mouths of sharks for our children, as most violence meted out to children is by someone they already know. A 2020 report by Unicef indicated that about 50 per cent of Kenyan children have experienced violence in some form.
My daughter owns a smartphone and repeatedly waxes lyrical about a game called Roblox, which the creators describe as “the ultimate virtual universe that lets you create, share experiences with friends, and be anything you can imagine.”
While my understanding of the game is limited, I’ve locked horns with her over befriending strangers on the site, as that’s one way that children are lured online.
Internet access is not limited to urban children. According to the government's National Plan of Action to Tackle Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Kenya, 2022–26, most children in Kenya have access to the Internet through a smartphone, tablet or computer (in or outside of the home). In rural areas and low-income urban areas, children and young people use cybercafés and video dens.
To keep our children safe during this long holiday, we must first admit that we don’t know enough about keeping them safe from the dangers that lurk online and offline. I've seen some parents keep gadgets completely off limit, but that's an ostrich's head-burying behaviour, if you ask me.
Our children need knowledge and skills to keep them safe, as much as we do. Comprehensive sexuality education should be a priority for any parent, and those who can’t give their children age-appropriate information on their sexuality and reproductive health should find those who can, as long as this information gets to their children.
There are numerous opportunities for both parents and children to learn how to keep safe online too, especially in this digital age. There’s literally no excuse not to learn. If we keep them busy with these two things, I’m sure the two-and-a-half months will fly by quickly. And who knows, they might even get too preoccupied to raid the fridge!
The writer comments on social and gender topics (@FaithOneya; [email protected])
