Egypt Pushes for Stricter On-line Guidelines to Defend Youngsters

Egypt’s Nationwide Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) acknowledged on Wednesday, 28 January, that defending kids within the digital house is a nationwide precedence, calling for stricter regulation of kids’s web use and stronger safeguards towards on-line dangers.

In a assertion, the council stated that regulating kids’s use of cell phones, social media, and digital video games is a central a part of Egypt’s nationwide youngster safety coverage, because the digital world expands quickly and on-line dangers proceed to develop.

In accordance to Sahar El-Senbati, Chairperson of the Nationwide Council for Childhood and Motherhood, whereas social media presents alternatives for studying and communication, it has more and more develop into a gateway to critical dangers for kids, together with publicity to exploitation and age-inappropriate content material, which might have damaging results on kids’s psychological well being and conduct.

About half of Egypt’s kids underneath 18 use social media, the place they face publicity to dangerous content material, cyberbullying, and on-line abuse, in accordance with a 2024 report from the government-linked Nationwide Middle for Social and Criminological Analysis.

The council urged authorities and related teams to attract on worldwide greatest practices and undertake a balanced strategy that permits kids to profit from the web whereas strengthening oversight of content material directed at minors. 

The council additionally referred to as for restrictions on photographing kids, sharing their pictures or private information, or speaking with them by way of digital platforms exterior accepted and lawful frameworks. It added that safeguarding kids on-line ought to emphasize prevention, not simply responses after hurt happens, by selling protected and accountable use of know-how and elevating consciousness amongst kids, households, and establishments about digital dangers, safety measures, and reporting channels.

The NCCM’s assertion comes amid a rising nationwide debate over the consequences of the digital world on kids and youngsters, a dialogue that has just lately gained traction in each parliament and the presidential workplace.

A number of lawmakers have expressed concern over kids’s unmonitored use of smartphones, social media, and digital video games, citing potential social, psychological, and academic penalties. Members of parliament have referred to as for stronger authorized measures to manage kids’s on-line exercise, improve parental controls, and maintain digital platforms accountable for content material aimed toward minors.

Earlier this week, on Monday, 26 January, the Home of Representatives introduced that it plans to draft laws regulating kids’s use of social media, aiming to “put an finish to the digital chaos our kids are dealing with, and which negatively impacts their future.”

Lawmakers acknowledged they may seek the advice of with authorities officers and specialists to create a regulation designed to “shield Egyptian kids from any dangers that threaten its ideas and conduct.”