Abstract:
The internet has the prospective to offer children and youths a wide collection of
opportunities to learn, to develop different skills, to be in touch with friends and for
entertainment purpose. At the same time, the Internet also offers new risks including
Internet addiction, cyber bullying and exposure to inappropriate content such as
pornography. Technology has opened ways for paedophiles to contact children through
social networks, chatrooms or even on their mobile phones to begin conversations that
lure them to join indecent forums on the internet. This study sought to investigate parents’
awareness of risks associated to children’s exposure to internet and the strategies that
they use to regulate children’s use of internet. The study took place at an up market
residential area in Nairobi, Kenya. The study adopted a mixed approach involving
quantitative and qualitative techniques. A survey involving 200 families was conducted to
explore parental awareness of risks associated with children’s internet access. Thereafter,
six focus group discussions were conducted with families selected through purposive
sampling technique from those who had participated in the survey. Focus group
discussions aimed to understand the everyday practices in children’s exposure to internet
and the experiences of parents in attempting to regulate what children access. Findings of
the study suggest that even though majority of the parents knew the kind of danger that
their children were exposed to online, there was a general lack of knowledge on how to
determine relevant content for their children, and how to regulate their access to internet.
Parents experienced challenges regulating younger children’s exposure to internet in
situations where their older siblings had internet-enabled mobile devices. It was also
established that children had adopted strategies that would make it difficult for parents to
monitor what they were accessing on the internet. Some parents, however, indicated that
they regularly guide and advise their children on what was appropriate/not appropriate in
the internet. The study recommends that parents be educated on the need and the
strategies of regulating their children’s access to internet.
