By Progress Rudo Nangati
THE Zimbabwean government’s recent announcement of its intention to legislate the use of social media through a national social media policy is poised to reverberate across all sectors of society. While many citizens are buzzing with excitement and curiosity, each group has already started to frame its expectations based on distinct interests.
Politicians, business people, ordinary citizens are all weighing in with their standpoints. Amid this dynamic landscape, child protection specialists like myself must seize this critical moment to advocate for robust safeguards for our children, the children of Zimbabwe.
Online abuse is one of the fastest-growing threats to child safety today, and this policy presents a vital opportunity to ensure that the voices of vulnerable children are heard and protected.
Child protection stakeholders must claim a stake in these discussions to push for comprehensive measures that prioritise the well-being of children in the digital realm.
As a social worker with a strong passion for child online safety birthed from the numerous cases I have responded to from the national child helpline 116, the timing of this conversation and action could not have come at a more opportune time.
Children in Zimbabwe, both urban and rural, are digitally smart, but so are perpetrators of child abuse, and despite numerous legal frameworks that are meant to protect children from harm, we cannot let our guard down.
For those of us in the child protection sector, the urgent need to fight the ‘invisible’ abuser has become apparent when we consider the growing reports of online sexual exploitation of Zimbabwean children.
Childline Zimbabwe in the year 2024 recorded 188 case reports related to Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA), which marks a significant increase from the 128 cases reported in 2023, a rise of 47%.
The nature of these incidents varied, 43% of the reports were related to children sharing or posting private messages, images, or videos, 26% involved grooming for sexual purposes, and 28% pertained to revenge porn or exposure to pornography.
This data highlights a troubling trend in the online safety of children.
Without proper regulations and monitoring, predators have found safe havens in unmonitored digital spaces, grooming and exploiting children through popular social media platforms.
The proposed policy framework must therefore prioritise mechanisms for detecting, reporting, and prosecuting online child sexual abuse, while mandating platforms to implement robust age verification systems.
Equally pressing is the emergence of child influencers on Zimbabwean social media. We are witnessing children as young as five becoming social media celebrities, often managed by parents or guardians who may not fully understand the implications of this digital exposure.
While some families have found economic opportunities through their children’s social media presence, the absence of regulations has left these young content creators vulnerable to sexual exploitation and abuse, which may be a foreign phenomenon to their parents and guardians.
Child influencers are constantly chased by shadows, shadows which demonise our children. Mechanisms that protect these children either in the presence or absence of their guardians is critical.
The new social media policy must address these concerns by establishing clear guidelines for child influencers. This should include limitations on working hours, mandatory education requirements, protection of earnings, and psychological support systems. We can learn from other countries that have legislation which protects child influencers.
However, implementation will require more than just policy documents. We need a collaborative approach involving telecommunications companies, social media platforms, law enforcement, and child protection organisations.
The policy must also consider Zimbabwe’s unique cultural and economic context while aligning with international child protection standards.
In a recent conversation with a former employee of Meta, the parent company for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, they reinforced what I had always assumed, social media companies incentivise engagement over anything else.
Regardless of whether your like or comment is made out of disgust or admiration, it boosts the content. And now with Meta’s abandonment of fact-checkers and content moderation, even engagement with hate speech and extremism could trigger the same algorithmic response as overly positive sentiment and be amplified more broadly.
The result being the most extreme opinions on either side of the issue find themselves in the comments engaging with one another, discouraging either side from taking a moment to consider all of the points of view in between extremes.
The digital world offers tremendous opportunities for our children’s development and prospects. But without proper safeguards, these opportunities can become threats.
As Zimbabwe steps into this new frontier of social media regulation, protecting our children must remain the paramount consideration.
The time to act is now. Our children’s digital safety cannot wait.
These opinions belong to Progress Rudo Nangati, a child protection specialist, and a Public Voices Fellow on the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse with the OpEd project.
