54% of Kenyan Adolescents Have Seen Sexualized Material Online

With 67 percent of minors aged between 12 and 17 years in Kenya being internet users and Kenya being among top internet users’ countries in Africa, it has emerged that cases of sexual exploitation for commercial online trade were on the rise thus prompting the government to formulate child online protection and safety regulations following an increase in cases of cyber bullying and sexual exploitation targeting minors

Speaking during a consultative workshop at lake Naivasha resort, Josephine Oguye, the director in the Children department at the ministry of labor, has said that minors are more susceptible to online abuse following easy access to internet through mobile phones and tablets.

Josephine has further noted that some house-helps and relatives were taking nude pictures of the minors and selling them online for pornographic production abroad, saying that this has lead to psychological torture and low self esteem among the minors who find themselves exposed.

On his part, Dr Vincent Ngundi from the communication authority of Kenya says children were now spending more time on the internet thus making them easy targets to online abuse.

He noted that the guidelines for Industry on Child Online Protection and Safety were critical interventions as they provided the foundation for safer and more secure Internet-based services.

Ngundi further added that children may be unable to discern the suitability of content they came across from time to time.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection will collaborate with the Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) in formulating the rules.