TAMWA Zanzibar Calls for a halt of Abuse of Children through Social Media

[G-Mdadisi]

Tanzania Media Women’s Association, Zanzibar (TAMWA - ZNZ) urges the community to refrain from recording children and posting on the social media networks after they have been subjected to humiliating acts. By doing so, is to aggravate the problem and is humiliating them even more.

Following the spread of smartphones there have been people who record children and distribute their information through pictures, audio and video contrary to the procedures and ethics of journalism.

TAMWA, ZNZ believes that these people may have good intentions seeking justice to the children but strongly advises them not to do that work and instead leave it to journalists who have studied the work and thus know how to hide the identity of the children.

Children have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, threats to their safety and cyberbullying, as well as to protect their personal information. According to the Children’s Act Na. 6, 2011 section 33 (1), no person shall publish any information or a photograph that may lead to the identification of an abused child except with the permission of the court.

Similarly, TAMWA Zanzibar requests the government in collaboration with stakeholders to prepare a strategy that will help provide awareness to the community to prevent these acts of recording and distributing children’s information.

In a recent study conducted by TAMWA Zanzibar, it was found that most journalists understand the importance of protecting children from social media and their news by veiling their identities. Therefore, videos that reveal and expose children’s information are often from non-professional journalists.

The recent trending incident via social media networks involves a child who is alleged to have been abused by a guardian father who has not yet been convicted by law enforcement agencies, therefore, TAMWA ZNZ calls for the government and relevant agencies to administer severe punishment to the suspects when the truth is revealed so that it will be a lesson for others.

Children have been the main victims of sexual abuse and legal remedies still remain an uphill task thus affecting them both physically, and psychologically. According to the Chief Government Statistician, 1360 incidents of humiliation were reported in 2022, and only 181 incidents, equal to 13 %, got convictions.