#IfikieWazazi :Uproar over teens online conduct

There was uproar after social media reports emerged that some teenagers had posted semi-nude images of themselves on a popular online platform. It all started with a feed of a girl who went live on her Instagram page and wanted to expose her nudity on social media without being questioned.

In the video, she tells off people who rebuke those parading their bodies on the Internet. That video of the girl speaking in a fake American accent, peppered with explicit Swahili phrases, awakened conversations around teenagers on the net. It led to exposing accounts of teenagers using social media to pose nude in an effort to gain instant fame.

Under the hashtag #IfikieWazazi, (Let the Parents know) Kenyans combed through social media and picked several photos of nude teenagers and shamed them to capture attention of their parents. Netizens bashed the teens, with some calling for law enforcers to seek the photographers who took the images.

As debate raged on, a human rights group has raised alarm over increased cases of online sexual exploitation of children in Kenya.

Terre des Hommes Netherlands, in its report titled: ‘The Dark Side of the Internet for Children – Online Sexual Exploitation in Kenya’, says children are live streaming sexual acts, with some doing it under the same roof as their parents. 

The Kenya Film Classification Board chief executive Ezekiel Mutua speaking when he launched the sexual exploitation report in Nairobi said the government will bolster online surveillance to protect children from sex predators.