Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabawe (POTRAZ) urges the government to tighten it’s laws on the hosting of age-inappropriate content. Indications shows that at least 58% of children are at the risk of accessing adult content and harmful things on the Internet. According to a survey by NewsDay, the highest and most visited websites include adult content sites and betting sites with underages being the most viewers and consumers. The Child Online Safety Survey (2024) was released last week by POTRAZ.
This survey shows that exposure to adult content is the main threat to Zimbabwean children either by intention or unintentional. 44% admits to watching adult content online at least once, whilst 13% of children experienced cyberbullying at least once in their lives. POTRAZ made quite a number of recommendations to save children from cyber harm, this includes enhancing internet access and digital literacy, integrating digital literacy into teacher training, implementing child-centric education programmes, promoting local language digital content, promoting parental involvement, utilising parental control tools and empowering parents with digital literacy.
POTRAZ also encouraged parents to play a their part in safeguarding their children from online risks by: regularly talking to their children about online safety, keeping their children’s computer in a common area of the house for online monitering, installing security software or tools that can help filter inappropriate content, block malicious websites, and protect against cyber threats, being aware of all the devices their children uses to access the Internet and encouraging children to share their passwords with their parents.
