Share-renting should be considered an offence, Milimani law courts principle magistrate Jackie Kibosia has said.
Speaking in a panel discussion at Baraza Media Lab, Kibosia urged parents against co-parenting with the online community (share-renting).
She emphasized the need to have laws against share-renting stating that children need to be protected in the online space.
“Kenya is not a place for share-renting where we raise our children with the online community. I fail to understand why someone should be comfortable posting their child swimming at the coast,” Kibosia said.
“In this way, the parent is already exposing their child. I am told of how our children are being auctioned on porn sites. Someone picks your child’s photo they find online, works on it using AI and then sells it. I am also told the African child goes to the highest bidder.”
Kibosia was speaking during the Day of the African Child celebrations hosted by the Wakilisha Initiative.
This year’s theme set by the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) was “The Rights of the Child in the Digital Environment”.
Wakilisha Initiative celebrated the day under the theme “Child Justice in the Digital Environment”.
Kibosia also said that there was no need for parents to post about when, where and what they are doing with their children.
“Avoid telling us that you have given birth. Some people can just use that against you and come steal your child because they have been waiting for you to give birth,” she said.
“I look forward to a time when children will sue their parents for posting their photos online. I think we are dealing with a lot of identity issues, a fake lifestyle that we know we cannot afford. When parents decide to post their lifestyle online, they should try and leave their children out of it.”
ODPP prosecution counsel Valentine Manyasi noted that in as much as there are virtual court sessions for children, physical ones are still available.
“Even though we are using the virtual space, we haven’t really absolutely taken away the physical aspect of things. It is also important to note that any child in conflict with the law is always represented by a pro-bono advocate,” she said.
She, however, said that children still require protection in the online space.
Legal Tech Kenya founder and CEO Nelson Nkari added that as a country, we have failed at creating online safe spaces for children.
He said that there must be a conscious effort to ensure that the tech side ensures protection and the rules put in place are very secret.
“This is to ensure that there are no cracks to allow the adhesive behaviour of online bullying to permeate into spaces that are supposed to be safe,” he said.
He also said that establishing safe systems for children will require ensuring they are in place and achieve what society wants.
“Key to this is access to justice, level of digital literacy, placement of enough security measures, as well as consideration of development capacity and ability to decipher what is right from wrong,” Nkari added.
“We also need to take into consideration the evaluation capabilities of children and build that in the systems as we ensure we create a layer of protection.”
On her part, Wakilisha Initiative co-legal director Joy Gitau said more still needs to be done as far as children are concerned.
“They are a special group and their rights must be protected,” she said.
Gitau added that there is a real challenge that exists when it comes to the impact of children in rural, informal settlements who specifically require access to legal systems.
“Digital literacy is important for any court user to utilise the digitised court systems, case management systems and even e-filing platforms,” she said.
“However, when we talk about digital skills and literacy, there is a segment of children who lack that privilege. Most of the time, you will find that most of them are in contact with the law and access to even the internet is a real challenge.”
Gitau called on collaboration and innovation in order to make sure that children remain safe even as they get access to justice in a digital environment.