[kictanet] Day 10 of 10:-IGF Discussion, Socio-Cultural Issues

[John Walubengo]

Mwende,

My contribution on content is borrowed from the 'real-world' situation with TV/Radio content as practiced in the developed economies.  Basically, all debatable content such as that of pornographic nature should be rated and access controlled.  

I truly live in fear for my son, who will be a teenager in another six years when pornography will be streaming in - as is already happening- through FM Radio, TV, Internet, 3G Mobile Phone, iPods, Matatus, etc. Only that time, it is likely to be cheaper, faster and virtually realistic.  A nation grown on a diet of pornography produces future pedophiles that come to feast on the next generation - as is common in West and emerging in our (urban?) society.

My other contribution is on eLearning. eLearning has matured significantly over the last few years and is now a proven pedagogical methodology that is being exploited to the maximum by the Northern countries.  It is really upto us in Kenya, to measure up and became the eLearning Center for this region. Imagine, UoN,  Strathmore or KCCT floating their courses online and thereby reaching that Rwandese who always dreamt of getting a Kenyan Education but could not afford it due to overhead costs for meals, accomodation, transport, etc...

walu.
 











--- On Fri, 8/22/08, mwende njiraini <mwende.njiraini at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: mwende njiraini <mwende.njiraini at gmail.com>
> Subject: [kictanet] Day 10 of 10:-IGF Discussion, Socio-Cultural Issues
> To: jwalu at yahoo.com
> Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Date: Friday, August 22, 2008, 9:36 AM
> Morning!
> 
> 
> 
> Today we enter our last day of discussion on Socio-cultural
> issues.
> 
> 
> 
> To begin with, we discuss issues relating to content
> control and freedom of
> expression.  The internet governance discussions on content
> focus on the
> need to control three groups of content.  Firstly, content
> where a global
> consensus is in place including child pornography and
> terrorism.  Secondly,
> content that might be sensitive to particular countries,
> regions or ethnic
> groups due to their religious and cultural values. Thirdly,
> politically and
> ideologically sensitive content. There already exist
> several initiatives
> that limit the potential misuse of the internet.  Are there
> such initiatives
> in Africa? How can we enhance national legislation to
> include a content
> policy that would guarantee the protection of human rights,
> specifically
> freedom of expression and also remove the ambiguous role of
> ISPs, law
> enforcement agencies and other players?
> 
> 
> 
> Secondly, we discuss issues relating to the delivery of
> education services
> over the internet (e-learning).  Many students from
> developing countries are
> today opting for online education to overcome the challenge
> of prohibitive
> costs associated with foreign education.  Increased
> cross-border education
> has brought about international governance issues in
> relation to
> accreditation of institutions, recognition of qualification
> and quality
> assurance.  Is there an existing national policy on online
> education?  What
> measures need to be put in place to assist our local
> universities develop
> e-learning programmes in order to protect our
> culture/traditions implicitly
> transmitted through our local institutions as well as
> prevent capital
> flight?
> 
> 
> 
> References:
> 
> 1.      Kurbalija, J. and Gelbstein, E. (2005) Internet
> governance:  Issues,
> Actors and Divides
> 
> 
> 
> Again, you are encouraged to contribute to previous
> discussion threads.
> 
> 
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> Mwende
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Disclaimer: These comments are the author's own
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