By JOE GURINA
THERE is alarming rate of students accessing the internet to view pornographic materials via smart phones, according to a research conducted in schools in the country.
The research conducted by the Office of Censorship is disturbing according to Chief Censor Jim Abani.
In an exclusive interview with this paper, Abani has indicated that more than 60-70 percent of students attending secondary and primary schools in the country are using the internet to access pornography sites which is affecting their education.
He said this is the reason why academic performance has drastically dropped in recent times due largely to the influence of mobile phones.
“Students have come out clear by admitting that they were surfing through the internet through their smart phones in schools or at their pleasure times and even at their homes to view pornographic materials,’’ Abani said following a research conducted by his office in schools in the four regions of the country last year.
“The research is all about trying to see what is happening with our teenagers back at the school and why academic results are dropping. Why unsolicited materials are circulating amongst themselves,’’ he said.
He said the findings will be compiled and presented to stakeholders and the national government.
Abani said the other reason behind the research was basically to provide evidence to the stakeholders and at the highest level to the government to know the issues affected by the technology.
“Technology is here to stay; the government is embracing technology to roll out its services to the people. But it is that, it comes with its good and bad sides. In a way, issues have been raised amongst the young people on the use of technology.
“Therefore, the government agency that is responsible for the content on the medium of communication, we want to provide that evidence to the government on some of the risks involved in having access to internet, mobile phones, such as smart phones,’’ he said.
Abani said his office had developed a concept paper in 2014, 15 and 16 which, “we have done the presentation to other agencies including the National Security Advisory Committee (NSAC) and to the Chief Secretary’s office at that time Amb Isaac Lupari.’’
“We have done our presentations on information and we went up to that level that there is an issue here,’’ he said.
“So we took another approach by doing research in schools, that was our target,’’ he said.
He said prior to that, few researches were conducted like usage of mobile phones in 2014 and other few pilot research were done, but more information were not available and gathered.
“Now we have come up with a frame work of doing our research under my management when I was appointed as Chief Censor last year. One of the approach I took was to carry out the research by our research team,’’ he said.
He said his research team despite the COVID-19 restrictions last year, has successfully managed to cover the entire regions and worked on completing their research targeting two selected schools in each region culminating in 200 students undergoing the scrutiny.
He said the research plan was launched by the Chairperson of the Censorship Board Karen Haive last year.