Africa needs better internet access - but we urgently need stronger protection for children online.

By Dr Joan Nyanyuki, Executive Director, African Child Policy Forum

I wrote this blog on my laptop, and the chances are that you’re reading it on a digital device such as a phone or tablet. We’re so used to accessing and consuming information online that we barely think about it. Those born after 1980 consider themselves digital natives - and even those like me, old enough to remember the pre-internet era, are used to living our lives online.

The internet and its vast resources are a double-edged sword, especially for children and young people. Yes, the potential for good is enormous - access to education, the latest news or telemedicine, for example. But for many vulnerable children, the online space is far from ‘good’. African governments have been slow to adapt child protection laws, polices and systems to respond to emerging digital threats. This has left millions of children unsafe online.?

Despite fewer than half of all Africans having internet access, the impact?of digital technology on African Children has been significant. The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) says the digital era has “fundamentally changed” the way in which children exercise and realise their right to education, freedom of expression and freedom of association. The Covid pandemic showed that online learning was possible. But what use is that when, according to a Unicef estimate, fewer than one percent of the poorest children in West and Central Africa have internet access?

Rights such as freedom of opinion and expression are not only important in themselves, but because they?act as a gateway to rights. By extension, the internet - as an essential platform of free opinion and expression - also acts as a facilitator of other human rights, including child rights.

It is laudable that the ACERWC has chosen the Rights of the Child in the Digital Environment as its theme for this year’s Day of the African Child. Cyberspace gives children and young people unprecedented ways to connect with family, peers, community, education and job opportunities - as well as giving them a platform to speak up and be heard. They can initiate debate and participate in society in ways unimaginable to their parents. Just look at the way young people across Africa mobilised online during last year’s COP27 climate talks in Egypt.

But the reality for millions of Africa’s children is that the internet is yet another tool of exploitation, coercion and oppression. As the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) pointed out in our report A Silent Emergency even before the pandemic, sexual exploitation has been made easier by a predatory and unregulated cyberspace. Very few African countries have laws criminalising online sexual crimes, and those that do frequently fail to enforce them adequately. In 2019, we predicted that “Africa is fast becoming the new frontier for online child sexual exploitation, and legislation and child protection measures are failing to keep up.”

The risks are even greater for the most vulnerable children, among them girls and those living with disabilities or albinism. Coercive control, human trafficking and sexual exploitation are all made easier online. The ACERWC also points to challenges around children’s data privacy, cyberbullying and exposure to harmful content. The list is endless, even before adding the misinformation and ‘fake news’ we all battle with.

But let’s give credit where credit is due. ACPF’s 2020 African Report on Child Wellbeing pointed out that some African countries, such as South Africa, Botswana and Ghana, have done well to incorporate provisions criminalising sexual exploitation and child pornography into their laws. However, far too many children are now unsafe, even within their own homes, because very few African countries have similar laws to protect them online.?

I am by no means a luddite. I recognise and welcome the transformative, liberating potential that digital technology has for all of us, including our children. By 2050, Africa will be home to one billion children - that’s one in every four children on the planet. In a rapidly changing job market, with traditional roles under threat from artificial intelligence (AI) and increasing digitisation, it is vital that African governments urgently increase their investment in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and information communications technology (ITC) education and training.?

The alternative - a digitally illiterate generation - will only exacerbate Africa’s already pressing economic challenges. By 2030, around?479 million Africans, nearly 30 percent of the population, will be living in extreme poverty. That’s nine times the average for the rest of the world. Whilst internet access is not, of course, a panacea for Africa’s gloomy economic outlook, and will not deliver all the dreams of African children and young people, it is vital for their wellbeing, education and training. It is already determining how far they can be economically and socially active citizens.

Even in those countries where the internet is relatively easy to access, the high price of data is an additional barrier to educational and employment opportunities. Sub-Saharan Africa has the world's most expensive mobile data prices - which in turn widens the digital divide and disadvantages Africa’s young people competing for jobs in a global market. It should come as no surprise to the older generation that in a survey of 18- to 24-year-olds across the continent, 71 percent saw universal wi-fi as a fundamental human right, but only one in eight could afford coverage at all times.

Contrary to popular opinion, access to the internet is not explicitly recognised by the UN as a human right, but it is a vital tool for participation in democratic processes. Denying millions of young Africans access to platforms which enables them to have a say in their own destinies is storing up trouble for the future. As we have witnessed time and time again, shutting down social media platforms and disrupting internet access is the go-too tool for authoritarian regimes. This is potentially a recipe for an even worse disaster.?

So where does this leave us as we celebrate the Day of the African Child? I feel strongly that digital technology has enormous potential to transform the lives and future prospects of our children and young people in Africa, and in turn to transform the continent’s economic and social prospects. But improved online access must go hand in hand with greater protection and safeguarding for children, especially the most vulnerable.?