Child Online Safety - Legislation and Policy Gaps
Position Paper
Highlights
It is known that the Ghanaian population is largely young. This according to the 2010 population and housing census; Ghana’s structure, entailed the age group from 0 through 14 years old estimated to represent 38.8% of the total population. The age group from 15 through 24 years was estimated to represent an additional 18.69% of the total population.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as being any person under the age of 18 and so does the Constitution of Ghana and the Children’s Act of 1998, Act 560. There is no clear statement regarding the virtual environment in these laws and unfortunately Ghana has signed onto various treaties, agreements but have not ratified those relating to the protection of children online. Without a clearly defined legislation and policy statement on the safety of a child online, there will be little or no guarantee for child protection; solely because the scope of the Act is limited to the physical space of the child.
