Social media explosion: How safe are our children?

Recently, a 12-year-old on Facebook posted a photo of a Ferrari with the tag: “Money may not buy happiness, but it’s better to cry in a Ferrari.”
Did this boy know what the tag means? If so, what did he make of it? Would such posts affect someone’s future behaviour and have them live to do whatever it takes to get such things like a Ferrari? More importantly, were his parents or guardians aware of what he was posting and therefore his mind set and thought patterns? They would need to be aware, just like all parents and guardians should be.

According to the Uganda Communication Commission’s Access and Usage of Communication Services Survey of 2014, internet use was dominated by urban dwellers compared to their rural counterparts (19.5 per cent vs 3.7 per cent). Worth noting is that overall, 77.2 per cent of the participants had signed up for social media, excluding WhatsApp, with dominance among the 15-24 years age group — 85.2 per cent compared to 55 per cent of the 45-54 age group. With this, we can postulate that a good number of parents are not signed up for social media while majority of their children are. And from observation, a good number of parents do not care much about the current social media dynamics and consequently leave their naïve minors exposed to strangers and to blindly explore the sea of unlimited information.

The obsession to use social media by children continues to grow despite the global pandemic of cyber insanity. Beyond the positive impact of social media in communication and networking, there are negative consequences for these minors. Examples include exposure to inappropriate information like that about sexuality and violence as well as disposal to “cyber predators” including paedophiles, kidnappers/traffickers, molesters and rapists among others which may not only lead to physical and psychological harm, but also to long-term behavioural problems.
Every parent should therefore monitor their children and guide them. It is good for us that currently the majority of children in Uganda are not yet too emancipated to call that “encroachment on their privacy”.

Many cases of internet initiated sex crime (IISC) and kidnapping/trafficking aided by social media especially Facebook have been reported elsewhere. In an Associated Press Article of October 29, 2012, Margie Mason reports about a 14-year-old girl in Indonesia who out of curiosity accepted a Facebook friend request from an older man who she didn't know and neither did she imagine it was a click she would forever regret. Due to the man’s flattery, phone numbers were exchanged and texts went on until they met and the naïve girl could only think he was just a charming man. After the bait, they agreed to meet again and the second time she told her mum she was going to visit a sick girlfriend on her way to church choir practice, only to enter the man's car near her home that drove her to a small room where she was locked with more young girls, drugged and raped repeatedly before being told that she was going to be sold for sex tourism. No parent would wish for their child to go through such experiences, but what have you done so far?

In a Daily Monitor article by Sheila Wamboga on Thursday 21, 2016, it was noted that no specific reports of online child abuse had been registered in Uganda due to lack of sufficient information. Nevertheless, due to the current poverty levels and low levels of children rights awareness, some children might take exploitation as a blessing in disguise and continue to suffer in silence. This should not limit preventive measures. The same article notes that a well-composed inter-ministerial working group for prevention of online child sexual exploitation is in place and is chaired by Ministry of Internal Affairs. The group if functional would register substantial impact since it embraces collaborative and systems thinking approaches which align with the current discourse on means to sustainable development. However, available information ends at the group description, multidisciplinary training workshops, and smart approaches to respond to the matter. To this far, I hope there is action taking.

All in all, specific to the approaches, public awareness targeting children, parents, and teachers should be given great attention.

The writer is a managing partner at Luminco Consulting