The Board’s Chief Executive Officer Ezekiel Mutua says other than his team, the board will be involving the Cybercrime Police Unit, Directorate of Criminal Investigations, technology service providers among other stakeholders to curb the menace/MOSES MUOKI
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 12 – The Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) has now adopted a multi-agency approach in what will be a major crackdown on online sites promoting illegal activities in the country.
The Board’s Chief Executive Officer Ezekiel Mutua says other than his team, the board will be involving the Cybercrime Police Unit, Directorate of Criminal Investigations, technology service providers among other stakeholders to curb the menace.
He said they will also involve the Ministry of Education, religious institutions and consumer organisations to strategise on ways of promoting Internet safety and enhancing child online safety through public awareness campaigns.
“The Board will work more closely with Google on the Web Rangers programme to promote responsible use of technology among the youth,” he said.
He said they had enhanced their capacity by acquiring more efficient media monitoring technology.
“We are also in the process of building our human resources capacity by recruiting more film monitoring and enforcement officers as well as increasing capacity for content examination and classification,” he assured.
This comes after the Board banned the ‘Blue Whale Challenge’, which he says is used to induce children to commit suicide or manipulating them to harm themselves and even led to the death of a 16-year-old Kenyan boy.
Mutua said they are also investigating reports about the existence of a foreign syndicate dealing with child pornography and promoting illicit drugs through illegal websites.
Already, he said police had narrowed down on a foreigner involved in the child pornographic business.
“The bulk of these platforms are being run by foreigners bent on spreading vices such as homosexuality and promoting radicalization among the youth,” he said. “Once investigations are completed, all offenders will be arrested and prosecuted in line with the laws of Kenya.”
He directed owners of play stations and cyber café to ensure any children content is sent to KFCB for classification.
With increased levels of internet penetration, he said surveillance will continue to be heightened since “criminals are likely to take advantage of this.”
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