The Role of Parental Protection of Teenage Children from Cyber Bullying: A Case of Ruai Ward, Kasarani Constituency in Nairobi County-Kenya

Abstract

The upsurge of information technology (IT); easy accessibility and use of internet, mobile phones and other technological devices such as computers, tablets and smart phones have become part of peoples' lifestyles. IT has positively enhanced communication, networking, knowledge and skills sharing, online businesses and entertainment, turning the world into a global village. Despite these benefits, several challenges have marred the use of IT. Of interest to this paper is online cyberbullying of teenage children by bullies who take advantage of their age and innocence. Though there are no official statistics on the number of children exposed to cyber bullying, there is an increase of 88% children seeking help for online abuse. Effects of cyber bullying are devastating and they present themselves with physical, social and psychological dimensions. This necessitates parental protection of teenage children form cyber bullies.  However, most parents are either not aware, unavailable or lack necessary support systems to equip them with knowledge of guiding and protecting teenage children while online. Teenagers have access to internet enabled devices but are hardly guided on how to prevent cyberbullying. Most parents and teenage children do not know how to respond when confronted with cyberbullying. As a result of this, parents who are teenagers' primary care givers are faced with the challenge of protecting their children from cyberbullying attacks.  This is the background that informs this study which sought to; find out teenage children's ability to access internet, establish respondents' awareness of teenage children vulnerability to cyberbullying, investigate parental role in protecting teenage children from cyberbullying and suggest strategies to enhance teenage children protection from cyber bullying. This study used descriptive survey design; the target population of the study was church going parents with teenagers from five selected churches in Ruai Ward, Kasarani Constituency in Nairobi County-Kenya. Purposive sampling and interview schedules were used to identify the respondents and collect data respectively. The findings revealed that majority (94.1%) of teenagers had access to internet, 90.2% respondents were aware of cyberbullying risks, 88.2% guided their children on internet use and there was need for awareness creation and strict legal enforcement of laws to protect teenage children from cyberbullying.