Child Online Protection

According to Ghana’s 2010 census, 10 per cent of young people aged 12 to 19 had access to the Internet through mobile phones. Because cheap smartphones are now available, this has increased significantly. While there is no data available on sexual abuse, violence and exploitation that children experience online, anecdotal evidence suggests that it is very much an issue.

The greater use of the Internet also increasingly exposes children and young people to the dangers of all forms of sexual abuse. Two in five children have seen sexual images at least once during the past year. Nearly a quarter of all surveyed children received such messages on their phones. The majority of children who have seen them reported that they felt uncomfortable, shy or embarrassed being exposed to these pornographic images.

The same study showed that one in five children had actually met someone face-to-face whom they first got to know on the Internet and 25 per cent of them were upset by this meeting. About half of all the surveyed children expressed difficulty talking to their caregivers about such exposures to sexual images. This is one of the main reasons for suspected severe under-reporting of such incidents in Ghana.

Several bottlenecks must be overcome to ensure safety for all girls and boys in online environments.

For instance, there are gaps in the legal and policy framework despite the 2008 Electronic Transition Act, which criminalises child pornography and spells out some other useful and related provisions. There is no regulatory framework, guidelines, or standards for online protection for mobile phone operators and other telecommunication companies providing Internet services.

In addition, there is an ineffective implementation of the existing legal framework and inadequate capacities of professionals working in key departments like the police, prosecution, judges, staff of the Cybercrime Unit and the Domestic Violence Unit to prevent and respond to cases of online abuse, violence and exploitation.

Resources dedicated to preventing the exploitation of children online are insufficient and contribute to hampering progress. Survivors online exploitation may fear stigmatization and so are reluctant to report such cases.