The Lead for Child Online Protection at the Cyber Security Authority has called for improvement in social media protection for children due to the increasing quest for online popularity among the youth.

Afua Brown-Eyeson stated that the phenomenon of gaining many followers on social networking sites has exposed many youngsters to cyber security risks as they exchange vital personal information with strangers without caution.

In an interview with Samson Anyenini on The Law, Sunday, the private legal practitioner warned that the development, if not controlled, could make more children susceptible to terrorists.

“The dangers are endless but the few we know, especially for young persons and children are the fact that they often befriend people they do not know. Most of the adolescents are often at the age where they want to be seen as very popular and they would engage with anybody or accept any friend request without finding out who they are dealing with.”

“Children wouldn’t do due diligence, they would just want to increase the numbers so this is a major risk. We all know when a terrorist group became quite popular a few years ago, we heard that they were recruiting on the net. We can never know all the dangers because people have different motives - it could be sexual, fundamentalism, terrorism, stealing, fraud or anything,” she outlined.

She urged parents to be more circumspect in exposing their children to the internet.

“It has now become fashionable for children to have devices and there’s a bit more peer pressure among parents to ensure that their children too are not left out but the issue is ‘do you even know what you are giving to your children?’” she queried.

Sections 62-67 of the Cybersecurity Act 2020, Act 1038 criminalises child online abuses, including the production, viewing and distribution of child sexual abuse materials, cyberstalking of a child and sextortion.

Such offences are liable on summary conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than five years and not more than 15 years.