A System for reporting online child abuse and offenders

Abstract

Online Child Abuse is a major public health concern that requires the combined efforts of all citizens to combat. The government, through legislation and the judiciary have the responsibility of setting up structures to protect children and stop online abuse, for instance, by curbing the production and distribution of Online Child Sexual Abuse Content. Those involved in the perpetration of these crimes should be appropriately prosecuted. In addition, measures should be set up to make reporting easy for the victims or anyone interested in giving a tip to the law enforcers. As knowledge is the first line of defence, a platform where citizens can access information on the variety of online child offenses prevalent in the country, legal implications of committing such offenses and prosecuted offenders is required. This information would inform and forewarn citizens. Kenya does not have such a system in place and relies on international databases for intelligence on harmful online activities directed to children in Kenya. This project sought to tackle this lack of easily accessible information and reporting channels for online child abuse, especially online child sexual abuse, in Kenya. The general objective was to develop a national online system for reporting online child abuse and maintain a record of these abuses. This was achieved by obtaining an understanding of how online child abuse is currently dealt with in Kenya, highlighting and understanding any weaknesses noted. A review of online crime reporting systems in other countries was done to use them as benchmarks for the development of a reporting system for online child abuse in Kenya. A system to report online child abuse and maintain a record of these abuses was designed, developed, tested, and validated for adequacy in addressing the problem of reporting and maintaining a record of online child abuse. Agile software development methodology was used to design, develop, and test the system. Agile development methodology focuses on the system features, while maintaining rapid iterations. As part of data collection, interviews were conducted. Respondents were obtained from child centric institutions and potential system users drawn from among the students, staff, and parents of Strathmore University. The System validation was done by creating some Law Enforcement agency users at different roles to confirm the systems effectiveness in receiving reports of Online Child Abuse and providing useful information and material for investigations.