Confinement measures put in place to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic have led to children spending more time online learning and playing games.
While the internet is helping children keep up with their learning during the pandemic, experts are now warning parents and guardians to be careful about the websites their children access as terror groups are actively exploiting the cyberspace to recruit new members through online grooming.
Cyber jihadist are extremists who uses the internet as a communications, fundraising, recruitment, training, and planning tool.
In addition to this, there is the danger of cyber-stalking, child pornography, sexting (sex texting) and solicitation, as well as Zoombombing — intrusion by trolls or hackers on Zoom — all of which, together with the increased cases of pregnancies among school children, creates need for increased surveillance of their activities online as well as offline.
“A lot of child sexual content is being circulated on the internet and on social media and sadly, children are now involved in the production and distribution of the content. The more children continue staying at home, the greater the danger,” warned Ms Faith Manyala, a child protection officer at Unicef, during a recent webinar.
Interpol has warned that, while the World Health Organization (WHO) has called on telcos to do everything they can to ensure that children are protected while online, social media providers such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube merely rely on artificial intelligence and automated tools to detect illegal content.
“Such software have limitations and may not be as accurate as human review,” Interpol warns on its website.
Trolls and hackers have been joining meetings or classes uninvited and sharing pornographic content on their screens for everyone to see. Some of the content involves child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA).
Similar incidents have been reported on gaming platforms across different countries where scammers exploit the opportunity to make contact with the children.
And with the closure of borders, Interpol further warns that scammers may venture into cyberspace for sexual exploitation.
“Live-streaming of child sexual exploitation for payment has seen an increase in recent years, and the demand is likely to rise as travel restrictions remain in place. The supply of live-streamed CSEA material is also likely to increase as victims may be locked down with facilitators (often a family member) and economic hardship increases,” Interpol adds.
Other dangers include personal identifier information being made public, an example being the video that went viral of a 13-year-old boy insulting a girl in his neighbourhood.
“Twenty years from now, that video will still be online, so how does that affect him when he goes looking for a job?” asks Mr Samuel Muniwiny, a child rights activist.
Other risks include children being exposed to harmful activities such as drug abuse, forming exploitative relationships with the people they meet online and getting lured by the urge for popularity to the extent that they buy followers on social media.
A study conducted by internet security provider Kaspersky between the end of last year and the beginning of this year shows that 74 per cent of Kenyan parents do not track their children’s location. This is despite the existence of software that can be used to track remotely.
The “Responsible Digital Parenting” survey revealed that a majority of Kenyan parents do not track the location of their child because 58 per cent of them have never thought of doing so, while 26 per cent do not know how to do it.
“There is the option to have the software, which lets parents locate their children on a map and set a safe area for them to stay in, installed on their children’s devices. However, 32 per cent of parents in Kenya claim they do not have it installed on any of their devices,” the study says.
“Tracking your child’s location allows you to control, not only the digital world of your child, but also their real life,” says Mr Andrey Sidenko, head of Child Safety at Kaspersky Network.
Mr Muniwiny agrees, and advises parents to monitor the expanding spaces in which children are spending their time beyond the home, school and playground.
“The online community is a whole village that is no longer limited to who you know and the surroundings you are familiar with. This, therefore, calls for more protection mechanisms and an understanding of the online space,” he said during the webinar.
Displaying, printing and publishing of material that may cause a child be involved in acts of indecency such as prostitution also constitute online abuse.
“Our law has evolved to the extent that electronic evidence can be admitted in court to support where a child has been exposed or abused online, including images that may have been taken as per our evidence act,” notes Justice Mumbua Matheka.
On its part, Interpol advises member countries to conduct incident mapping exercises across schools to identify emerging issues relating to sexual exploitation and abuse of children and ensure hotlines remain free and manned for victims to report offences.
Kaspersky strongly urges parents to explore modern trends in online applications and update their network security knowledge to safeguard against the dangers mentioned.
The firm also calls on parents and guardians to communicate with their children and define the boundaries that are not meant to be crossed. They should also discuss safe locations both physical and online. Parents are also advised to take an active role in guiding their children to use the internet for positive impact since they cannot do away with it.
