Mary Tengera is a mother of three, including a teenager. Her daughter is an active user of social media and the siblings own phones. As a mother, she finds it difficult to monitor her children. It is almost impossible for her to control what her children do on the internet.

Tengera understands well that internet and social media platforms impose massive negativities into her children’s lives. She admits that as a parent, worries rise unceasingly as her children get soaked into the online world.

Her worries might sound familiar to some parents. Social media and online content are massively swallowing up some natural aspects of family lives. Pastor Antoine Rutayisire elaborated on the negative impacts of online uncensored content on the children and on a family aspect.

According to him, children are tempted to spend the bulk of their time on useless content. Although there are valuable things to do online, they are barely capable to choose the right and resist tempting content, he said.

In addition, the dangers of the internet are increasingly multiplying over the years. For example, he says, children might be exposed to inappropriate content and some ill-intentioned people looking for youngsters to prey on.

Pastor Rutayisire also articulated that excessive use of internet and phones make communication-based relationship in families shrink eventually.

"As a pastor, I know that a healthy relationship requires communication. But nowadays, people are busy in technological gadgets instead of communicating among the family members,” he said, adding that society is severely exposed to consistent conflicts and misunderstanding because they do not make time for each other.  

A policy in place

In July 2019, the Ministry of ICT partnered with that of Gender and Family Promotion to introduce an Online Child Protection Policy in Rwanda. The move came amid the fast ICT development with internet penetration rising to 52 per cent up from 7 per cent in 2011 in Rwanda.

The policy stipulates that businesses are required to show procedures and special considerations undertaken to ensure child safety and respect for children's rights as they extend their online services into Rwanda.

The policy also states that if internet service providers, communication service providers, entertainment and media industry, who are the concerned parties in the case, fail to abide by the policy, they shall be blocked.

However, the Head of Cyber Security at the Ministry of ICT and Innovation, Maurice Kajangwe, told The New Times that the policy does not include any technical supervision or regulations yet.

"For now it is more about reminding people to supervise their children and protect them from internet distractions. In the next fiscal year, we will revise the policy and make it more supervising,” he said.

How effective?

To their surprise, both Mary Tengera and Pastor Antoine Rutayisire were not aware that such a policy exists. The case might not be unique, public awareness on the policy is still very low, according to Kajangwe , but the ministry’s plans to raise awareness on the policy.

Joseph Ryarasa, the Chairperson of Rwanda Civil Society Platform, agreed that public awareness campaign was needed for this specific policy, but added that the policy needed to be implemented on the household level.

"It is good that the policy was introduced, but how is it implemented and by who?” he asks, "parties concerned should raise awareness on it for the public to understand their role in making the policy effective” he added.

Allen Karungi, a mother of two, also emphasized that the policy concerns everyone. She articulated the need to thoroughly explain the dangers of social media and some online content.

"Instead of banning the use of social media altogether, how about explaining the restriction? I think that is a better approach; sometimes, telling a teenager not to do something without them fully understanding why will only make them more curious about it,” she says.

According to UNICEF, over 45 per cent of the Rwandan population is under 18. The Online Child Protection Policy was introduced this year by the Ministry of ICT and Innovation in partnership with the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion. It would cost over Rwf1.5 billion (about 1.7 million U.S. dollars) on the enforcement of the policy over a period of 5 years.