Film Board warns Kenyans sharing nudes on Whatsapp
Kenya Film Classification Board Chief Executive Mr Christopher Wambua has condemned the recent escalation of obscene images and videos on social media platforms.
TMr Wambua warned that his team is monitoring abuse of social media platforms by individuals who take advantage of it to hurt other people or their former lovers by sharing their inappropriate images.
He has asked the victims of such acts to take action by seeking assistance in courts, even as he asked the perpetrators to stop shaming the people they were intimate before parting ways.
“For the abuse of privacy, it is the role of the offended party to go to court and demand that the culprit needs to face the full force of the law…there are women and men who are living in shame because of revenge pornography. They shouldn’t,” Mr Wambua said.
He said that through lawsuits, such cases can be minimized, saying that the board is only mandated to flag obscene photos and videos from social media, which they said is a challenge since once an account has been flagged, the culprit pops up with another account.
The board has asked social media users to be sensitive and avoid sharing extremely offensive video content which has the potential of causing harm.
Also, the board has said that some of the platforms have been turned into midnight porn hubs by users.
“Some social users are increasingly misusing digital applications to host and stream live videos. Indeed some applications are being transformed into digital brothels from midnight onwards.”
The board has equally asked parents and guardians to be monitoring their children during the April holiday, to ensure that they are not consuming restricted content.
“Are we looking out for the interest of the child as we interact with technology or are we turning the internet which is most of the transformative innovation in our times into the world waste, or have we normalised violence and misogyny to the point of being insensitive to these vices?
Mr Wambua said that Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act states that a person who transfers, publishes, or disseminates photos or videos of a person without their knowledge is punishable.
Section 37 of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act of 2018 states that:
“A person who transfers, publishes, or disseminates, including making a digital depiction available for distribution or downloading through a telecommunications network or through any other means of transferring data to a computer, the intimate or obscene image of another person commits an offence and is liable, on conviction to a fine not exceeding two hundred thousand shillings or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to both.”
Recently, Interior Cabinet Assistant Secretary Millicent Omanga became the victim of cybercrimes, as her photos and videos were shared across social media.
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