. . . boys more likely to be exposed to sexual content than girls
By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
A Child Online Safety Survey has revealed that a sobering 44% of children have been exposed to sexual content online.
And of these 44% the majority are from privileged schools who are exposed to sexual content because they have access to internet and gadgets.
And further analysis showed that boys were more likely to be exposed to sexual content than girls, with one in two boys being exposed as compared to two in five girls. And older children were also likely to encounter sexual content online.
The Child Online Safety Survey was carried out by Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe in collaboration with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
The study holds paramount importance as the results have far-reaching implications for policy formulation and implementation in both the ICT and Education sectors.
During the survey in all the provinces visited, in all the schools visited, an educational psychologist was provided for by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
“So 44% of children confirmed that indeed they had been exposed to sexual content online. “This is either intentionally, where the child actually seeks the information, or they see it inadvertently, where maybe a leak comes up out of knowing that you opened, but we know that children are very adventurous the very adventure that they would want to see. So 44% of children were exposed to sexual content online,” the report said.
“Exposure to sexual content is actually very, very harmful because you are desensitizing a child to sexual activity at a very young age which means that by the time, even before they’ve grown up, the chances of them engaging in risky sexual behavior is very high and the chances of them engaging in any sexual behavior is very high and people are already noticing it with the generation Z which we widely term ama2000 years.
“We also analyzed exposure to sexual content by the type of school and generally people thought that children in the more privileged schools were more exposed to sexual content as compared to their counterparts.
“I think this is in line with the fact that they have the highest number of users in P1 and S1 schools and the frequency of users we have seen for these children in these schools is also high as compared to their counterparts. So there is a higher risk of them seeing this content,” the report said.
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