Digital Harm & Somalia/Kenya: A Pipeline to Children at Risk

Contributor: Abdikadir Mohamed hassan

Summary of the situation in Somalia

Somalia’s history makes it a complex operational environment both politically and developmentally. The multi-layered crisis continues to have a profound impact on Somalia, increasing the vulnerability of the population at large. Ongoing political instability, insecurity and armed conflict exacerbate the effects of natural disasters and climate-driven shocks, such as droughts, flooding, and desert locusts.

More than 89% of parents in Somalia report being worried about their teenagers’ extended internet use

The situation continues to amass immigration issues and strain the nation's resources, while the presence of armed groups impedes support provided by humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding actors. The history and traditions of decision-making in Somalia are important for understanding and developing local governance. Such decision-making in Somalia is largely in the hands of clans, carrying on traditions from systems that has flourished in the country for decades. 

The Problem

These days, children in Kenya and Somalia online are coming across dangerous and harmful content, being recruited by terrorist networks, and sharing naked photos of other children. This is all totally unthinkable, of course, to most Somali parents and teachers besides the bigger risks of Child Trafficking from the Kenyan refugee camps to the big cities in Kenya and as well in the larger region of East Africa.

Internet use among children and young people has skyrocketed in recent years which has brought with it, along with many benefits, alarming new online risks. Online harms like cyberbullying, radicalization, and image-based abuse can have serious consequences for young victims ranging from self-censorship to suicide. 

Somali/Kenyan children and young people lack support mechanisms, protections from the law, and the digital literacy skills required to help prevent harm and take action. Parents and teachers lack understanding of the online harms young people face and are therefore not informing them about these things or offering the right kind of support to those who do fall victim.

Muno is 5 years old in this photo. She is carrying on her back her 2 year old baby brother. In 2022, she and her family were displaced from the Bay region of Somalia after the drought killed all their livestock. Muno is not old enough to take responsibilities, but seems like the circumstances forced her to help her mother and take care of the younger child.

Victims report facing serious consequences as a result including severe emotional distress, leaving platforms to erase online presence, self-censorship, and suicidal ideation. Further, the majority of victims in Somalia do not know what protections or guidelines are offered by social media and other platforms. 

Girls and young women are more likely to experience harm online, with one survey showing that 49% of Somali girls and young women attending educational institutions experience constant harassment on online platforms due to their extensive use of the internet for education.

They reported harassment including blackmail, non-consensual access and distribution of personal information, impersonation, defamation, sexist abuse, intimidation, hacking of personal accounts, recording without consent, identity theft, sexual harassment, and cyber stalking. People with disabilities are also at high risk of online harm and often not in school due to the lack of accessibility in Somali schools.

low digital literacy is exacerbated by a lack of awareness about online safety,

More than 89% of parents in Somalia report being worried about their teenagers’ extended internet use. Parents are particularly worried about their daughters online compared with their sons. The majority of parents have limited ability to use the internet and a negative attitude towards it and so they rarely actually understand the online harms facing their children and rarely inform their children about such things. This is particularly true in rural parts of the country where digital literacy is low.

This issue of low digital literacy is exacerbated by a lack of awareness about online safety, with neither households nor others passing this crucial knowledge down to young people. This makes the role of schools essential which can fill a much-needed gap when it comes to informing young people on how to

The most common harms and concerns in this part of Kenya and Somalia porous borders are:

1. Online harassment and cyberbullying

2. Exploitation from online predators

3. Image-based abuse including so-called ‘revenge porn’, nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes created by Generative AI tools, and sextortion

4. Misinformation and disinformation

5. Scams

6. Hacking

7. Concerning privacy breaches

8. Cyberstalking and doxxing

9. Child trafficking and young people cross Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.

The mitigations or response to some of these above are outlined below:

1. Awareness raising through faith leaders on the vice and issues of concern

2. Capacity building of directly involved government/private sector stakeholders.

3. Involve Tech companies in the sector to be responsible in the aspect of TECH FOR GOOD

4. Create inter-agency networking on those working in the protection sector to include in their programming Online safety as a priority.

5. Capacity building the different government departments on policy drafting to protect victims/survivors of online safety harms incidents

6. Petitioning government arms to take responsibility on incidents of violence via these media platforms.

7. Raise the flag with donors, private sector and also government on the urgency of these issues.