Keep holiday-makers safe

For most schools both primary and secondary, the first term holiday is here and while it brings with it relief for parents from the school runs and rigorous routine for both learners and parents, it is also a time to be intentional about how these few weeks of rest are spent by the holiday makers. 

The school routine however tiresome offers some sort of safety net to learners because of the controlled and tightly managed environment and routine. This is not the same during the holiday. While parents and guardians are away at work, holiday makers are left to idle by and many become the devil’s workshop.

Last Friday, activists during an engagement meeting of civil society organisations dealing with child rights asked parents to closely monitor what kind of online content children are consuming to protect them from sexual exploitation. 

According to activists, online exploitation of children is on the rise.  Damon Wamara, the executive director, Uganda Child Rights Network NGO network, said: “Online engagement using a computer, tab or phone which is not monitored or controlled, may expose children to online sexual exploitation… This can be through online pornography or online grooming into queer manners.”

This is something that parents must pay key attention to. While technology can’t be pushed away in this day and age, it must be managed and used responsibly.

There are a number of monitoring and regulatory measures that can be used to ensure that holiday makers are not viewing inappropriate content or being preyed on. Parents would do well to employ some of these, not to be intrusive but to set the same boundaries and parameters for safety.

This is also a good time to talk to holidaymakers about online and off line safety. You might not be able to monitor them all the time but you can equip them with knowledge that will keep them safe.

Encourage holiday makers to learn a skill, chore or two. This must be what the Ankole Diocese Bishop Sheldon Mwesigwa was thinking when he advised parents to always let the holidays period be a time for house helps to rest.

“Life is not only about going to school and getting good grades but also having survival skills. Our Children have been soaked in books but are short of other survival skills that can make them survive in life like farming and domestic chores.”, he said.

Speaking at Mbarara Junior School in Mbarara City during the inauguration of the school’s management committee he said with the growing world economic challenges like employment, increasing cost of living, you can educate your child to best academic qualification but without survival skills, it might turn to waste”.

The bishop and Mr Wamara are right on the money. Watch what your children are watching, find out who they are chatting with online and keep them busy with some chores and a skill or two.