LLB Research Projects (2024)

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Browsing LLB Research Projects (2024) by Author "Tembete, C. M."

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    Safeguarding child content creators: towards enhanced legal protections in Kenya’s digital platform economy
    (Strathmore University, 2024) Tembete, C. M.
    The Kenyan digital platform economy as of July 2022, has had 11.8 million active social media users, 4.9% of which are children. Within the percentage, there is the inclusion of children who create content over different platforms including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook. The content is either posted on the children’s personal page if they are over the age of 13, or on the pages of parent-run accounts. The content which varies, has the capability, through endorsements, advertisements or affiliate marketing to earn the creators' money. Naturally, for child creators, the money is deposited to the parents' accounts due to the children’s inability to be bank account owners. This inevitably creates the concern of the possibility of children not being able to tangibly benefit from the work that they do on social media. It further raises the question on the labour practices and laws in place to regulate the. In Kenya, the legislation that exists does not adequately protect children who actively work in the digital platform economy, which in turn potentially exposes the children in question to vulnerabilities due to the lack of protection. This dissertation therefore purposes to examine the need for new or amended child labour laws and compensation guidelines for children providing labour on social media platforms in the Kenyan context. This dissertation, through comprehensive literature review, a comparative analysis with other jurisdictions and research sought out to first investigate on the legal framework in place within Kenya in regard to child labour and the protection of child rights, identify the gaps in the area and the impact that they have on the children who work in the digital platform economy. The dissertation was able to identify the main gap as the current legal framework’s lies failure to anticipate and effectively contend with the emergence of children as active participants in the digital platform economy. The impact of this on children ranging from physical and mental consequence and the risk of exploitation and abuse. It has further sought to evaluate whether the production of content by children on social media platforms in Kenya meets the legal criteria of work as defined by Kenyan laws and international legal instruments. Through this, it was able to positively confirm that it does. The dissertation further set out to propose legislative reforms in Kenya that would better protect children who work in the digital platform economy including; legislative reforms, collaboration and adequate monitoring and enforcement. Finally, the dissertation makes the conclusion that the current legal framework is wanting but makes the observation that with proper legislative reforms, it would be able to adequately ensure the protection of children.