With an upsurge in cybercrimes globally, children are becoming a target on the cyberspace as Kenya grapples with a feeble Children’s Act that does not provide sufficient protection to the victims as well as stringent penalties to the offenders. 

Though the Children’s Act 2001 safeguards the child from both physical and psychological abuse, it does not provide sufficient provisions to protect the child from cybercrimes such as cyberbullying, exposure to adult content, pseudo-attacks among others; 13. (1) A child shall be entitled to protection from physical and psychological abuse, neglect and any other form of exploitation including sale, trafficking or abduction by any person. Children Act It is due to the inadequacy of the law that child rights organisations are calling on the government to develop a sturdy legal frame work to help in protecting the children when abused and punish heavily the offenders.  Dr Bitange Ndemo, the Permanent Secretary, Information and Communications ministry, said there was looming danger with the coming of the fibre optic cables as people will be able to access cheap internet. But instead of using internet for development purposes, it is absurd that the internet has become a tool for immorality rather than development. “Our Film Department recently arrested criminal film producers who use children to produce “adult content” in Nairobi and its environs. Internet is a very good resource if properly used for the purpose it was meant for.” Dr Ndemo said there was need to fortify Cap 222 of the Film and stage plays (Film Censorship) regulations in order to give the disciplined forces the mandate to investigate and arrest the illegal film producers. He said the law did not give sufficient provisions to punish heavily the offenders giving them the leeway to return to the business.Dr Ndemo also blamed the Kenyan Media especially the Television and FM station who air explicit content perpetuating during broadcasting abusing the children psychologically. With the new broadcasting regulations coming into effect by January 2010, Dr Ndemo said the media houses will have no choice but to broadcast content that abide by the national values and promote morality. “Freedom without limitation on media will make the public vulnerable to unwanted media contents and therefore anything being either aired on radio or TV should respect the moral foundation of the country.”He also called for the amendment of the Sexual Offenses Act to provide it with the power to prosecute cyber related crimes. According to a recent survey on the child internet safety and security awareness programme conducted  in Nairobi by the child rights NGO The CRADLE, children and young people are at risk of abuse through the uncontrolled use of new technologies especially the internet and mobile phones. Although the measures to curb internet on the PCs are readily available, Brian Weke, Programme Manager-Child Rights & Awareness -The CRADLE, said the mobile internet is becoming the most sophisticated platform to protect children from as children are becoming used to surfing the internet via the mobile phones. The survey shows that social networks are the most favourable sites for children due to their popularity and ability to network people around the globe:“Social networking sites such as ‘Facebook’ ‘My Space’ and ‘tweeter’ are extremely popular networking sites. A majority of the children engage in chatting on these social sites and also send text messages on their mobile phones, “said Weke. And since children aged between 12 and 18 are the most vulnerable groups on the social networks, the research shows that a majority have become victims of cyber-bullying in the event of creating friendship with strangers. The research also shows that the children who are victims of cyber-bullying are shy to tell their parents or other they prefer to tell about those they know have been victims of the ordeal. “In this case children sampled during the research were more willing to say that a person they know had been a victim of cyber bullying rather than say that they themselves had been victims of cyber bullying. Levels of understanding of what cyber bullying is and awareness levels on the same were also significantly low, “said Weke. At the same time research showed that a majority  of the cyber cafes never displayed warning posts to alert children not to visit unwanted sites like porn sites which have detrimental effects to children’s psychological development. On the other hand the Internet Service Providers were also identified by the research to be reluctant in giving customized products for setting up parental controls for the children. Though internet policing is in existence in Kenya, parents have been called upon to provide parental guidance to their children due to the fast revolutionizing ICT industry especially with the internet usage. Mark Matunga,CSR Manager, Microsoft East and Southern Africa, also advised the parents to adopt software solutions with security features that would help them deter their children from accessing unwanted websites and at the same time help them monitor their children even from their mobile phones. "Microsoft has developed serious security features on its new windows 7 operating system which even include family safety for the children.with this software you can bar your child from accessing unwanted websites and at the same time it has the ability of integrating your phone and the PC at home, a feature that can enable you monitor your child virtually."