Google in training initiative to save young minds from falling victim to internet woes

NAIROBI, KENYA: Google Kenya has embarked on a programme that will see secondary school students throughout the country benefit from training on how to avoid problems brought about by exposure to the World Wide Web.
The training whereby the leading internet provider has teamed up with Global Peace Foundation (GPF) and CODE-P Trust comes in the wake of tragic incidents linked to the cyber such as the death in November 2014 of 22 year old University of Nairobi student Ashley Agumba who died in the hands of a white lover she met and befriended on facebook and the recent San Bernadino shooting to death of 26 people in California, USA by a radicalized married couple who met on the internet. Many incidents go unreported.
About 100 students and teachers drawn from 10 Nairobi region Secondary schools convened recently at Ngara Girls Secondary school for the first of training sessions lined up for all the other regions in the country. The one day training covered knowledge, resources and practical skills on online safety.
Opening the session, the Director of the Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA) Mr Stephen Njoroge described as frustrating the fact that neither parents nor teachers could effectively keep tabs on the material their children were reading in the internet, hence the importance of training stints to exercise caution.
He said internet tricks were not only causing deaths as in Agumba's case, but had seen people robbed of their money and property through ignorance. "This teaming up of google and GPF would not have come at a better time and ought to be embraced by all schools and colleges to minimize ugly incidents linked to the internet," said Mr Njoroge.
Google Kenya's Public Policy and Government Relations Manager Mr Michael Murungi and GPF's Kenya Country Director Mr Daniel Juma advised young people to treat strangers carrying alluring offers in internet with caution because such offers are largely bets to draw them into traps from which it would be difficult to escape.
"Our aim is to create online citizens who can navigate their way through the internet without being led blindly into harm's way as has been the vogue of late," said Mr Murungi.
He described as alarming the number of impressionable youths falling victim to the international web of cybercrimes because they were not shielded against gullibility to simple tricks such as being wooed by local and international criminals with money and purported love and promises of instant riches.
He said it was in recognition of the huge challenge of internet safety in Kenya where 29 million people had access to internet that the child online safety campaign had been launched to train students who would in turn train fellow students.
Mr Juma said anti cyber abuse training was the only way to shield gullible young minds from exploitation and manipulation on line at a time terrorist organizations were on the rampage targeting the youth, some of them below 12.
"Global Peace Foundation's partnership with Google Kenya will empower secondary school teachers and students within GPF's Leap Hubs program and beyond with digital literacy while providing resources and training on safe access and value of online presence," said Mr Juma.
He regretted that young people were easily wooed into doom through the internet with promises for jobs, love and the like and called for the transformation of education to remove the focus on jobs.
"That is where we are headed with Leap Hubs where emphasis is more on character and creativity as opposed to examinations and jobs, hence mitigating ills such as vulnerability to cyber exploitation for lack of skills for self-dependency," said Mr Juma.
Leap Hubs are incubator spaces established in secondary schools where students are incubated and nurtured to be creative, innovative and be able to launch sustainable business ventures and social enterprises.
Apart from Ngara Girl's High School that hosted the inaugural child online safety training, Nairobi regional schools invited to participate included Moi Forces Academy, Maina Wanjigi Secondary School, Embakasi Girls High School, Kariobangi North Girls Secondary School, Precious Bloood High School, Riruta, Braeburnn School, Raila Education Centre, Brookhouse school and Moi Girls' Nairobi High School.