The government, through the Ministry of Information, Communication, and the Digital Economy, will review the regulatory frameworks in place to combat the rise in cases of explicit content sharing on social media platforms.
Speaking on Wednesday during an interview with NTV, ICT CS Eliud Owalo stated that the ministry will impose stricter measures where necessary to close loopholes that allow social media platforms to be abused.
Concerned about the now-popular trend of TikTok users going live during the wee hours of the night -11pm to 3am-sharing explicit content, Owalo stated that the law guidelines will be reviewed to protect social media users.
“If there is a way that we should strengthen the existing policy and regulatory framework we will go ahead and do that. If there are concerns with feasible proposals on how we can improve the Computer Misuse and Cyber Crimes Act 2019 we are willing to review and update the act while in partnership with other arms of government like the National Assembly,” he said.
“That has guidelines within the confines of the law that we should not exploit children in the cyberspace and let us start with self-introspections as Kenyans.”
Owalo also urged Kenyans to take personal responsibility and help in the fight against cybercrime, noting that with the vast extent to which social media has permeated society, it is difficult to keep it within the confines of the law.
“I have said and I want to repeat that we may have laws that must also be augmented with the responsibility of Kenyans. We cannot leave everything to law. The law may exist but we still dance around the law. We must change the mindset of the people,” he said.
The CMCA Act defines computer-related offences to enable the timely and effective detection, prohibition, prevention, response, investigation, and prosecution of computer and cybercrime.
Cyber espionage, unauthorised access to ICT systems, false information publication, child pornography, identity theft, cyber harassment, and cyberterrorism are among the offences.
