In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, online safety has become a critical issue, particularly for young people who are increasingly exposed to a range of cyber threats. From harmful content to cyberbullying, the organizations focused on safeguarding vulnerable groups. The Ghana Internet Safety Foundation is one such organization, playing an essential role in creating safer online spaces and empowering young internet users across Ghana. Through its initiatives, the foundation educates, advocates, and works alongside schools, parents, and communities to foster a safer digital environment.
On our most recent episode of Inside the Sweeps, we’re excited to welcome Emmanuel Adinkrah from the Ghana Internet Safety Foundation to discuss the vital work they are doing to ensure a safer internet experience for Ghana’s youth. Tune in as we explore how the foundation is working to address the unique challenges of the digital age, providing practical strategies to navigate the online world with confidence and responsibility.
Natasha Pande
Welcome everyone and thank you for joining us on our podcast Inside the Sweeps. Today we’re joined by Emmanuel Adinkrah and to kick us off, could you please introduce yourself and share your role with the Ghana Internet Safety Foundation. We’d also love to learn about the organization’s mission and the key areas of online safety that GISF prioritizes.
Emmanuel Adinkrah
Thank you, Natasha, and greetings to your cherished listeners. My name is Emmanuel Adinkrah. I am the President and Chief Information Security Officer of the Ghana Internet Safety Foundation. I also double as the Founder, so multiple titles in there. So, the role of GISF is primarily simple. We are an NGO or civil society organization based out in Ghana, West Africa.
The organization was founded in 2014. So, this year is literally our 10th year anniversary. We work in the digital safety and online safety space, providing resources, creating advocacy, getting into research and victim support for issues related to online safety, digital awareness, child online protection, and the whole, let’s say, cocktail of issues related to digital wellness.
Natasha Pande
Oh, very important work that you guys are doing. And collaboration is often essential in the fight against online risk. Right. Which you spoke on. So how do you work with other organizations or government bodies in Ghana to promote internet safety? Are there any particular initiatives that you’ve been successful in uniting these efforts?
Emmanuel Adinkrah
Yes. Thank you for that question. So, as you may know, collaboration is critical in dealing with issues of online safety. It does not just border on the Ghanaian base, but it’s cross national, especially when you’re dealing with cybercrime and all the harms that are perpetrated online. Ghana, for example, has 70 percent internet penetration rate, with cybercrime losses increasing year on year.
The current statistics as of 2023, stands at a loss of 3.1 million dollars to cybercrime alone. So, there’s definitely the need to collaborate with state and government and local civil society organizations. So, for GISF, we work with the Ministry of Education because we believe that digital literacy is important for ensuring that citizens, especially children, have the knowledge and the means to use the internet safely.
So, Ministry of Education is one we work with and partner with the Cyber Security Authority. This is the main governmental body responsible for regulating cyber security in Ghana. We cannot do without law enforcement. So, we work with the Ghana Police Service and Yoko. Yoko is more responsible for economic and online organized crime.
So, what we do with these partners is critical. I cannot mention these organizations and leaving out the Ministry of Justice, ensuring that victims get the necessary support in terms of justice delivery to in times that they are harmed online. That’s for the local partnerships. We also work with parents through the National Council of Parent Teacher Associations.
So, this is the body responsible for supporting parents or advocating for parents and teachers in schools. That’s for some of our local partnerships. Lastly, we also work with The Ghana Telecoms Chamber, we currently are in discussions with them because they are kind of like the hub that has all the telcos together in one spot.
So, we have in discussions with the chamber to also develop initiatives that can promote online safety. Internationally, we are also a member of the WeProtect Global Alliance, a member of the Trust and Safety Professional Association. So, we do some work with them, likely, this year in July, we’re able to conduct the first Trust and Safety Hackathon in Africa.
We worked with Jeff and Katie Dunn, who are pillars in the trust and safety space to organize the first hackathon, trust and safety hackathon, which focused on cyberbullying and sextortion in Ghana. Primarily to develop solutions, tech solutions, that can help mitigate these challenges in Ghana, in Africa.
So those are some of the partnerships and collaborations That we have, and it’s critical to always seek partnerships and collaborations because the threats that we face, especially children face online, is not localized. We just have to identify local solutions to these global threats and global harms.
Natasha Pande
Absolutely. Yes. Partnerships are very important and it’s good to get the messaging around everywhere. It’s not just a solution for each country. It’s a overall solution for all children. So, on that note, in Ghana, children, as you said, face serious risk when using the internet. So, given that students spend much of their day at school and often access the internet primarily in that environment, educational institutions have, of course, a unique opportunity to support safe online behaviour.
So, considering this, how do you see the responsibilities of schools evolving to ensure a safe online environment for students? Do you believe in implementing web filtering and other protective tools could be effective in helping schools shield students from inappropriate or harmful content?
Emmanuel Adinkrah
Definitely. Thank you. Thank you for that insightful talk. I think that those statistics that you gave is also very helpful. Underpinned by data from the Disrupting Harm Report on Ghana that says that children are literally exposed at an early age to online harmful content. So, I believe, and our organization believes, in leveraging technology to protect children.
And web filtering is definitely one of the tools or means to ensure that children who are literally in the schools will be able to get access to a safe environment to use the online space safely. We must also understand that the African context or the Ghanian local context to using web filtering. These are the strategies or tools to provide effective protection to children while they are in school. One of the things is that even though internet penetration is at 70 percent in Ghana, we must, you know, juxtapose it against the socioeconomic framework of the country, right? So how many of these children spread across the country from the urban and countryside, right?
You know, have access to internet at schools. So even though the penetration is at 70%, we must make sure that the tools that we are providing, for example, web filtering tools can be used in the urban schools and also develop tools that can be applied in the rural schools. We always need to put that in perspective.
And that’s one thing I advocate for all the time, but definitely leveraging web filtering tools and other strategies is super, super critical. And towards that, GISF is currently working on a framework that will seek to kind of like certified schools as being digitally safe. So literally coming up with an easy-to-do framework.
Let’s say that if a school completes, is able to satisfy this checklist. Do you have a computer lab? Do you have access to the internet? Do you have a web filtering system? Do you have your teachers educated on online safety? Do you have cyber trauma counselors in your school? Are your parents, the school children trained or are they aware of digital literacy and safety? Do you have a digital contract between the school students and the parents?
If you have all these things, you are then certified as being digitally safe, and also you get some reward points or you get something for achieving that, you know, status. That will kind of like help encourage the schools in the urban and in the rural areas to take steps to implement tools like web filtering tools.
Natasha Pande
Yes, it is a very big collaborative goal. So, it does take educators, parents, organizations to kind of implement all of that in order to have these kinds of tools in place, for sure. As children continue to navigate the online world, they’re exposed to both enriching content and potential risks. So, in Ghana, around 3 out of 10 youth have experienced something that has upset them while online, with about 2 out of 10 reporting they have been treated in a harmful or unfavourable manner over the internet.
So, despite these experiences, many children feel more comfortable talking to friends rather than parents or teachers about these challenges. This kind of highlights the need for parental guidance, as you’ve mentioned previously, and involvement in fostering a safe digital environment. So how do you think parents can best support their children’s online safety? And what guidance would you offer to them? Are there any tools or resources Ghana Internet Safety Foundation provides to help parents and families navigate online safety with their children?
Emmanuel Adinkrah
Thank you again. And most certainly that our parents are pivotal to ensuring that their children are safe online.
As much as they spend most of their time in schools, it’s literally a parent-teacher collaboration that would help ensure the total protection of children online. Now, one of the things that we advise parents on, or the guidance we provide is, one, to foster open conversations with their kids on, about the use of online resources.
And we always tell. Parents, whether you are a Gen X or baby boomer, or you are of the old generation, it doesn’t mean that you cannot have open conversations with your kids about their online use or use of online resources. So open conversations is definitely a must. If your child is into video gaming, we recently had a video gaming summit, hosted by Dr. Blyson and Lester Crowe from the viewers. And we kind of like came to understand that video games can be leveraged positively to build the confidence of children and also bring parents closer to their children, right? So, guidance and open conversations, leveraging open conversations, is one with your children about their use of internet resources.
Two, we have a program or initiative called the Digital Parenting University. So, this is not a four-year university. It’s usually webinars and in person workshops where we train parents, what we call a digital parenting 101. So, this is a course or a session that empowers parents with tools and resources to better equip them to be effective digital parents.
Now, these resources come in the form of books, worksheets, practical tips, and also, we engage with our directorate of cyber trauma to empower the parents to help identify their kids that are struggling with issues of mental health, related to what they are experiencing online. Some kind of like call it cyber depression or cyber induced mental depression.
We provide parents with skills to be able to pick those up and how they can deal with it. Through that we offer a cyber trauma support, a helpline, that parents can also call to report challenges they are facing and get support. Additionally, the government has got a reporting line generally for cybercrime. That’s 292. That’s the local member to call in case you’re having issues with, cybercrime or online safety, challenges. And now GISF is currently in conversations with INHOPE to set up a hotline in partnership with our local partners and government, which will be dedicated to providing a resource for children and parents to call to get the necessary help related to CSAM and OCSEA.
Natasha Pande
That’s amazing. Lots of resources for parents to access. That’s great. So as technology continues to evolve, students are increasingly immersed in the digital world, offering them vast opportunities for learning, creativity, and connection. However, as you mentioned, there’s also the challenges related to not only online safety, but mental wellbeing and responsible digital behaviour.
So, beyond the safety aspect. How can schools help students have positive and enriching digital experiences? Are there any strategies or approaches you would recommend to help students develop these skills for navigating online spaces with, of course, confidence and responsibility?
Emmanuel Adinkrah
Yeah, definitely. One of the things that we advocate for is ensuring the digital wellbeing of school children or children in schools by teaching responsible online behaviour, and most importantly, critical thinking and digital literacy.
So, when you put those three elements into an effective, let’s say an effective cocktail of a curriculum, you are literally building up the children to be able to deal with some of the challenges that they experience online. What we have done with the schools that we work with in Ghana is to go ahead and set up what is usually called a club.
So, we call them Cybersafety Ambassadors. So, in each of these schools, we have a student led club or a child empowered club, led by the students themselves. These students are equipped with resources and knowledge to become the first front line for their colleagues when they have issues or challenges online.
Like you earlier said, most children find it difficult reporting some of these harms to their teachers and their parents, right? But they feel more confident talking to their colleagues and friends about some of the things that they experience online. So, by utilizing the Cybersafety Ambassadors Club in each school, these ambassadors are able to strategically and critically help their colleagues, either through providing means of reporting, let’s call it first aid digital health.
When the issue is beyond them, they have a channel of escalation to external resources who will then pick up the cases and then help the victims out. This model is also located in some of our universities that we partner and work with where they have a mental counselling department and each university counselling department, they have what they call peer counsellors. And we collaborate with them and use these peer counsellors, educate them and empower them with resources. And then they become what we call Cyber Angels. So, on the university campuses, we have Cyber Angels who also act as a first layer of response to their peers when it comes to online harms.
And across the educational landscape, whether you’re talking about kids, from eight, nine years to 15 years or 16, and you jump into the young adult from 18 to 25, or even to 30 years in the universities. We are always hearing and dealing with issues of non-concessional intimate image abuse, or what we call nude or naked pictures that are leaked online. And in some instances, we deal with revenge porn, we also deal with sextortion. That’s also on the rise in Ghana and sometimes a lot of times in the schools as well. So, these initiatives in the schools are helping the children to stay safe.
Natasha Pande
Wow. That’s great work you guys do. So social media brings up unique challenges for young users as well. Often exposing them to risks they may not fully understand. So how can both parents and educators help students manage social media use and understand its impact. Are there any approaches or tools you find particularly effective for that?
Emmanuel Adinkrah
Yeah. I mean, you cannot teach what you do not know. So, one effective approach is to empower the parents and the teachers with knowledge and just not knowledge but also giving them the tools and the skills to be able to help the children safely navigate online spaces.
For us, we have an initiative that we’ve been running for about five years, five to six years now, every year we call it, iLearn2Teach. And this initiative is targeted for teachers in Ghana. So, we bring teachers across the country to a workshop, usually a three-day workshop, and we give them tools and, you know, practical tools and skills and empower them with knowledge, as well to be able to deal with the emerging threats in the online spaces.
Every day we hear new things coming up. Now we are empowering them with knowledge regarding AI, artificial intelligence. Also, regarding using, how folks are using generative AI to come up with images of their children or colleagues intimately exposed.
All these things are like ensuring that our teachers are also empowered. As I said earlier, with the parents, we leverage our digital university series to empower them. Currently in Ghana, this is kind of like interesting because next week we are having a three-day webinar called, 10 National Digital Parenting Awareness Week, where we bring parents together across the country and then empower and upscale them as well.
So, giving them tools is also critical. So, we currently leverage through Impact Amplifier and the work we are doing with them. We are leveraging Google’s Family Link as a means to help parents navigate and provide some control over how their children are using online resources. We are always open to collaborate with any tech company that can provide us a tool, especially a parenting app that would help empower them to further help their children.
One thing that we are very careful about is to ensure the balance between the privacy of the children and the concept of monitoring. In some circles, the word monitoring is not kind of like preferred because it’s kind of like comes across that you’re trying to spy on your children. But at the same time, parents are concerned about what their children are doing online. We are always looking for tools that strike a very effective balance between knowing exactly what the children is doing online and not coming across as spying on your children.
Natasha Pande
Right, that is always a very fine line, you know. It’s always hard to know the boundaries or limits where you can, you know, monitor and check in on what your kids are doing online.
And um, looking forward, online threats are expected to continue growing as more young people go online, especially in developing regions. What upcoming initiatives or projects is Ghana Internet Safety Foundation focusing on to further improve internet safety in Ghana? I know you had already mentioned a few, but are there any others?
Emmanuel Adinkrah
Most definitely, so many initiatives, but we are strategically rolling them out. One of them is getting resources. And for this, we are looking for anyone that has got a skill set or the know how to help us develop, online safety curriculum into local languages. You know, so if there’s any tool out there that can help us to translate available online resources into local language, that will be a game changer for us. So that is one initiative that we are currently on.
The second is also to develop content for the same group, special educational needs and disability groups. So, looking at children or people in that have disability, but also need that knowledge and need that empowerment when it comes to online safety. That’s also another initiative that we’re working on in terms of empowering Ghanian parents and African parents in general, we are collaborating with other sister organization on the African continent to come up with a platform that can empower parents.
And for this, I must mention that Impact Amplifier is doing, or through the Africa Online Safety Platform, is doing great work with regards to that. Special mention also goes to ITEL in Nigeria, they are also doing great work in that space. So, our initiatives are geared towards further deepening collaboration, partnerships, and also, uh, working with key stakeholders in and around Ghana and the world to promote online safety.
We are very particular about CSAM and also the, the negative impact of AI on the African continent, making sure that we can educate children and parents and demystify AI to these target audiences and make sure that AI doesn’t become like a monster that cannot be touched. But it’s portrayed as a positive resource, right, that kids and parents can use to improve their online experiences. So those are some of the initiatives that we are currently working on.
Natasha Pande
Wow, that’s great. And yes, AI can be tricky, definitely. But yeah, and we also, actually, Netsweeper also had the opportunity to work with Impact Amplifier and Africa Online Safety Platform in our last month’s podcast, and we learned a lot about online safety with them as well. So that’s really good to be collaborating with other organizations who are also looking to protect children online. That’s great.
Yeah, so as the digital landscape continues to expand, the importance of strong online safety measures grows. particularly in regions like Ghana, where internet access is rapidly increasing. So, what role do you think collaborations with technology companies can play in strengthening digital safety frameworks in Ghana? And are there any specific challenges that technology can help address?
Emmanuel Adinkrah
Yeah, thank you. The fight against online harms, in respect of the age group, cannot be achieved without leveraging technology, because for all we know, technology is the originator, it’s one of the key elements of perpetrating this crime, you know, online facilitated crime is enabled by tech.
So going back to tech companies to help develop the appropriate response or mitigation framework is critical. We are always looking for technology that can assess content moderation, identifying harmful behaviour and providing real time support. That is super critical. So, any tech out there, especially in the Ghanaian and the African context where internet access is kind of like sketchy, even in the most, let’s say developed African countries, internet connectivity is kind of like sketchy.
Also, with improving access, any tech that can operate offline and online can help mitigate some of the harms is wonderfully welcome. We need tech that can mitigate against sextortion, that can help with dealing with cyberbullying, which is a growing concern in Ghana.
Also deal with misinformation and disinformation for fact checking. We know there are existing resources. Out there or tools out there. But the thing always that we’ve come to realize is that these are solutions that are developed without considering the African context or the Ghanaian contexts. Some of the parenting tools that we have seen, they are super cool, but it’s more geared towards the global North.
So how can we get these tech companies to reach in nearly a tools and taking into context, for example, how African parents typically bring up their kids and incorporating some of these concepts in the solutions that is developed, right? So, it’s not only now about safety by design or safety by security, but it’s actually safety by traditional African parents and concepts.
So, like I said earlier, global solutions, but based on local ideas or local cultural contexts, that must be factored in safety by cultural context. So, tech companies can help in this regard to ensure that online safety is each and every one online user in Ghana.
Natasha Pande
Absolutely. Well, that was a lot of information and I think we all learned a lot from your organization. As we wrap up, are there any closing comments or thoughts you’d like to leave with us?
Emmanuel Adinkrah
Yeah, sure. Thank you. Again, I can’t say thank you enough, but honestly, what you guys are doing is great work. I just want to say that for the Ghanaian and the African context, internet penetration is increasing, and folks must not always see or hear about Africa and think about the yahoo boys from Nigeria, or the scammers from Benin or Côte d’Ivoire, or the harm that’s sextortion is causing in the global north, where, for example, it was established that most of the suicide, teen or child related suicides, perpetrated by sextortion is the perps came from Nigeria. It’s not always negative on the African continent. There’s some light at the end of the tunnel. In the darkness, there’s some light that is shining. We just need to amplify that light. Drive out the darkness with regards to because of technology.
So GISF is always welcome to work with anyone that is interested in getting on an initiative or projects to promote online safety, regardless of the angle that you’re coming from to get into the ecosystem. Whether it’s research, whether it’s looking at law enforcement empowerment, whether it’s looking at child or victim support, whether it’s looking at dealing with awareness, digital literacy and advocacy, GISF is ready to work with anyone.
AI is good. Technology is good, but ignorance is bad. And even with parents and policy makers and governmental agencies, we cannot relax and allow, for example, for a better word, just the internet to teach our children. We must grab the bull by the horns, empower ourselves to be able to be ahead of the cat.
So, thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to engage with the audience. No parent should be scared or feel intimidated by social media or by their lack of knowledge of all this technology that we speak about. In fact, you can ask your children to teach you, to engage with you. We always say that the parents know their children better.
So, if you are not even tech savvy, you can ask some basic questions from your children about tech. For example, hey, you can ask your child, what’s the latest trends for the day? And they will be shocked and surprised you asked that question, but it would open up the conversation with your child. They will give you some answers.
That’s enough, right? Routinely ask them and ask them to tell you about trends, latest trends, about TikTok, about Twitter, about Facebook, about all Snapchat. They will start talking. And if your child is lying or hiding something from you, as a parent, your natural instinct will tell you that my child is not really telling me the whole truth something is being kept, but with time you’ll be able to discern exactly what it is and be in a position to help the child and or even help yourself.
So, thank you. That’s my closing comment and really appreciate this opportunity to engage with you, Natasha, your team, and your wonderful listeners.
Natasha Pande
Thank you so much, Emmanuel, for joining us today and sharing your valuable insights from the Ghana Internet Safety Foundation. Your organization’s dedication to building a safer digital world is inspiring. And we really appreciate the incredible work you and your team are doing to protect and empower children online.
So, thank you so much for joining us.
Emmanuel Adinkrah
Thank you. It’s a pleasure.