Kenya explores ways to combat cyber crime

EAST Africa’s economic giant Kenya is exploring ways to combat cyber crime as the country pushes ahead with information technology advancements.

With an estimated three million Kenyans using the internet, the need for safe use of modern technology, internet in particular, has become paramount.

Kenyan experts in the field of Information Technology (IT) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are convinced that now is the time for Kenya ICT Board to come up with practical means of protecting children from cyber crime.

“Our children are so much privileged that they have access to internet connection unlike in our case when we were growing up. While our children might grow up wiser, knowledgeable about the world’s current affairs as well as accessing life opportunities that go with internet findings, it is our concern to see our children being abused online by these merciless cyber-criminals.

“My message to the parents is that we should monitor whatever our children will be browsing in order to protect them from accessing wrong images such as pornography and some other kind of unpalatable messages,” said Victor Waweru, an IT expert.

Kenya is not the only country in Africa that has expressed concern over cyber crimes as Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria, has also voiced its disgust over the online abuse children are exposed to.

In the meantime, the emergence of East African Marine System is taking the IT advancement further, a development most analysts say will increase chances of exposing children to online cyber criminal activities.

An estimated 1,5 billion people throughout the world use the internet with 400 million using broadband, which exposes children to even more abusive material.

While experts might be agreed that children should have access to the internet, they are also not blind to the increasing dangers that are associated with technological advancement, and are emphasizing the need for measures to be put in place to protect the internet users, particularly children.

By ITnewsAfrica.com