There have been a number of global
incidents reported lately that involve the abuse of technology to instigate or
perpetuate behavior that is considered immoral, unethical and/or socially
unacceptable.
Issues like child pornography, cyber bullying, sexting, grooming
by predators, scams and hate-speech have authorities concerned over what users
are exposed to on the Net, via mobile applications and devices, and on social
networks – particularly children. Africa, it would seem, is not immune to the
problem.
Over the past two months, several
media reports have surfaced detailing issues that involve technology on some
level, whether to document and disseminate material, or as a central tool
through which to conduct the actual activity. Below are just a few examples:
- Unley High School students suspended for cyber-bullying, sparks warning about dangers of social media
- Shock, anger over schoolyard slaying
- Cybercrime costing SA R1bn a year
- Cyber bullying growing in SA
- Police probe online ‘rape club’
- Hyde Park High sex pest case reveals more sexual assaults
More recently, an article titled How
Sweetie caught 1000 pedophiles spoke of how a Dutch children’s rights group
created a computer generated 10-year-old character and used it to identify over
1000 pedophile globally. The report detailed how the pedophiles had been
willing to pay for sexual acts performed in front of a webcam in a new,
disturbing trend known as webcam child sex tourism.
In South Africa, the safety of
minors was brought into question after news of an apparent case of sexual
grooming broke at Hyde ParkHigh School in Johannesburg in September. A teacher
was reported to have been eventually suspended for allegedly sending
pornographic material to a 16-year-old pupil.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
South Africa says that The Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention (CJCP)
recently published the 2012 edition of the National School Violence Study,
which included a specific section on online violence.
Approximately 6000 children from all
nine provinces in the country responded to the survey. The findings show that
around 20 per cent of children said that they had experiences some form of
online violence or aggressions in the past year. The most common of these were
online fights, where angry or rude language was exchanged in a chatroom or a
social networking site.
Less common were experiences of
receiving messages or being posted about with the intention of damaging their
reputation (3.7%), being threatened or intimidated online (2.5%) or having
someone send sexually explicit images/messages of the respondent by phone or
computer (2.3%).
“As part of National School Violence
Study, UNICEF has partnered with CJCP to conduct focus group discussions to get
a better idea of how and why young people engage in risky behaviour online –
and how they deal with negative experiences and build resilience. The Study
will be published at the end of November 2013,” the Organisation states.
Professor Basie von Solms, Director
of the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) Centre for Cyber Security, has said
that with developments such as extra broadband, a growing number of mobile applications
and the establishment of numerous technology hubs, South African cyber space
will become increasingly attractive to offenders, unless the threat is
substantially diminished.
“It is clear that traditional,
reactive approaches to information security are not enough anymore, and more
aggressive methods must be designed to go out there, identify attackers and
their motives,” he added.
In Africa
According to UNICEF representatives
it is difficult to make a comparison with other countries on the continent
because there is a lack of data on the prevalence of the issue in other
countries. Where data has been collected, usually the research methodologies
and sampling are different, so a strict comparison is not possible. The
organisation is working on the issue of online safety is a number of countries
worldwide, including Zambia and Kenya – and there is some recent data
available.
A soon-to-be published exploratory
study of digital use among 500 Zambian children and youth showed that on
average 17% of girls surveyed have been asked by someone to send a photo of
themselves in which they are not fully dressed, and 18 % of respondents said
that they themselves had sent an offensive or mean photo or message to someone
else via mobile phone or computer.
The most commonly reported type of negative
experience was receiving messages on their mobile phone which were nasty and
hurt their feelings.
To help quantify the situation and
gain perspective, the Organisation points to a comprehensive study conducted in
Europe, called EU Kids Online Study, which outlines three ways of looking at-
and classifying online risks for children. This is based on whether the child
is a participant, receiver or actor – all of which require different
interventions.
With an increasing number of reports
surfacing of incidents across Africa, it is not surprising that the situation
has caught the attention of high profile industry groups.
Under the Chile Online Protection
(COP) Initiative, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has established
an international collaborative network for action to promote the online
protection of children worldwide by providing guidance on safe online behaviour
in conjunction with other UN organizations and partners.
As part of this endeavour, ITU is
partnering with the African Child Online Protection Education & Awareness
Centre (ACOPEA)
to run a pilot exercise in training community activists and others in key
safety messages and tools.
The ACOPEA programmes and
educational resources, in line with the scope and objective of the COP
Initiative, will promote smart, safe and responsible use of digital
technologies.
In particular, one of the expected
outcomes of the project is to conduct awareness and training sessions in 25
schools in partnership with educators/teachers.
Facebook is supporting this pilot
initiative financially, in partnership with ITU and ACOPEA. All three parties
have a strong interest in digital empowerment and in ensuring a safe and secure
online experience for children and young people in Africa.
The pilot will principally focus on
Ethiopia, although the parties have ambitions for it to lead to the development
of Africa-wide education and awareness activities on the importance of child
online safety.
The project should enable ITU and
its international partners to reach out to all stakeholders, to better
understand the issues and mobilise support for sustainable pan-African Child
Online Protection.
Unicef representatives have stated,
“For parents and caregivers can adopt a number of measures or strategies to
minimize their children’s exposure to online risk, but the appropriateness and
effectiveness of these all depend on the age and capacity of the child.
Technological measures, like filters, are usually less effective with older
children who, or are unlikely to address the problem if this one of online
bullying or harassment.
Good communication about a child’s online activities
can have a positive impact – the National School Violence Study found that
children who regularly spoke with their parents or caregivers about the people
they met online were significantly more likely to tell their parents when they
were making plans to meet with online-only friends offline
