Breaking Barriers and Building Safer Online Spaces with AOSP

In recent years, the digital world has become a battleground against a rising tide of online threats, which pose significant risks to individuals, particularly children and teenagers. The increasing sophistication of online dangers highlights the need for comprehensive approaches to online safety and social media literacy to target vulnerable youth. This alarming trend underscores the urgent need for effective strategies to educate and protect individuals from these evolving dangers. Initiatives like those spearheaded by Africa Online Safety Platform are crucial in addressing these issues and safeguarding online communities.

Craig Butler 
Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today’s podcast, Inside the Sweeps. Today we are joined by Lorryn Williams and Heather Mahachi. 

Could you please introduce yourselves to us, Lauren, if you’d like to go first and just give us a little bit about your role and what you do for Africa Online Safety? 

Lorryn Williams  
Yes, of course. Thank you, Craig, so much. We are really happy to be here today. So, my name is Lorryn Williams and I’m the Head of Research at the Africa Online Safety Platform and my role involves a few key areas. One of the most important aspects is curating the various pieces of research that exist within the Africa Online Safety universe. Especially putting together all the fragmented pieces of information into a more cohesive body of knowledge. 

In addition to that, I’m also responsible for conceptualizing new research projects and securing the necessary funding to support them. I also managed some partnerships with institutions that share similar online safety goals. 

Another critical part of my job is managing a few grantees, particularly in South Africa and in Nigeria. The Africa Online Safety Platform as a whole, our organization is focused on tackling social issues that arise from increased internet access in Africa. We are dedicated to creating safer digital spaces through research, advocacy and partnerships, with a particular focus on vulnerable groups and communities across Africa. 

Craig Butler 
And is that just in education or is that wider, within universities and things like that? 

Lorryn Williams  
Yeah, it’s wider than that. It’s for parents to use, it’s for educators to use, it’s for university students to use, t’s for academics to use, it’s for policymakers to use. It really includes a wide net of an audience. It’s meant to serve anybody who’s interested in understanding what is happening within online safety on the African continent. 

 
Craig Butler 
Perfect. Well, thank you very much for the introduction. Heather over to you. 

 
Heather Mahachi 
Thanks for having me here as well. So, I’m Heather and I’m a Project Manager and a Researcher. So, at the Impact Amplify Foundation. So, the foundation is the organization that’s responsible for developing the Africa Online Safety Platform. 

 
So my role, I’m mostly responsible for overseeing the Africa Online Safety Fund. So, this is a google.org supported fund and we are currently providing funding to 21 organizations that are implementing initiatives across 15 African countries. So, each of these organizations is doing incredible work within their local communities. And you know, they’re focusing on various aspects of online safety. 

 
So, with the Africa Online Safety Fund, as the name suggests, so we’re providing them with the financial backing and also providing access to different resources so that they can actually implement these initiatives, scale their impact, and then also ensure that their project’s work is reaching the people who do need them the most. 

 
Craig Butler 
Brilliant. Well, thank you very much for those introductions, Lorryn and Heather. It’s clear that the Africa Online Safety is doing important work in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. With that context in mind, I’d love to explore more about the driving force behind your efforts. 

 
Could you share some of your core missions of Africa Online Safety and how does that align with the broader needs of online safety across the continent? 

 
Heather Mahachi 
Sure. So, for context, so roughly about 43% of the African population now have Internet access. So, this is an incredible leap forward. You know, as a continent is now just like creating new socio-economic opportunities every day and, you know, there’s a lot of digital transformation that’s currently happening and underway. But you know as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. So, this rapid growth and connectivity are not without its challenges. Particularly for like very vulnerable groups, so women and children, you know, in Africa, we’ve started to see a rise in privacy and security concerns. You know, fake news and political manipulation, child exploitation, harassment, financial scams…  

I could go on and on, but I think a lot of the things that we do think about is, you know, why is this happening so quickly? And you know, why are there not stronger protections in place for, you know, African citizens? And I think a big part of the problem is really like Africa’s outdated ICT infrastructure. So, the digital ecosystem is growing, but, you know, the infrastructure to actually support it, in many cases, simply isn’t there. And I think what’s even more concerning is that policymakers have not fully prioritized cybersecurity.  

So, about 15% of African countries have, you know, like a clear legal framework in place to address cybercrimes. And 15%, that it’s such a small fraction of the continent really, and it’s leaving many Africans very much exposed to some of these threats. 

 
So I think while the Internet is opening doors for, you know, like economic growth and digital innovation, it’s creating a whole lot of urgent risks that we’ve kind of identified and you know these risks really need to be addressed. I think in light of this, I would say that Impact Amplifier’s Foundation core mission really is to try and harness the transformative potential of digital technology. So not only to advance social and economic development, but to also just foster educational opportunities, try and facilitate safer and responsible communication throughout Africa. And you know, essentially just have the sharing of knowledge and the sharing of best practices for you know, anyone who really is quite interested in working in this space. 

 
Craig Butler 
Perfect. Lorryn, do you have anything to add to that at all? 

Lorryn Williams  
No, I think Heather answered that quite eloquently. 

Craig Butler 
That’s fine, that’s fine. I can see how passionate you guys are about what you do. And yeah, it’s great to see. There’s definitely so many overlaps with kind of what you guys are doing with what Netsweeper does. But it’s also interesting to say that the things that you’re seeing in Africa.   

In all honesty, I think you know what, there’s still struggles within Western world, in terms of, they have adequate laws in terms of being behind it, like they’re not necessarily digital laws. In the UK, they’re only just getting up to speed with that itself. I don’t think Africa is a million miles behind anyone because in all honesty, I think everyone’s behind on it. Not quite caught up to where the online safety and the online scam side of it is really very far behind.  

Let’s take a closer look at the key pillars of the Africa Online Safety Platform. Your work emphasizes the crucial areas like research, education, victim support and funding. Could you talk us through how each of these pillars contributes to your overall mission? 

Heather Mahachi 
Sure. So, after engaging with the different industry experts, we discovered that online safety problems are really an ecosystem problem that has four pillars that we feel like needs to be addressed. So, the first pillar is research. 

I think the reality is that you know the scale of the problem is not really well defined for Africa. So, you know, whilst most of us have likely experienced some type of cybercrime or maybe know someone whose phone got hacked or you know, something like that, the overall scale of the problem is grossly misunderstood. 

What we’ve also seen is that, you know, where research does exist, African research tends to be very regional. It’s done with like a limited scope and is often done once and not really done annually. There are a few exceptions to this, but that’s kind of the main thing that we’ve been seeing. Having research be conducted in this way often prevents, you know, the accumulation of knowledge and also just identification of certain trends. So, what we’ve done with the research on our site is that we’ve essentially just aggregated all the open-source research that’s been published to date, and we’ve put it on the platform. So, when we say research, we’re talking about, you know, different reports, journal articles, books and news articles as well. And I’d also like to add that, so we will also be just like identifying some of the research gaps that we have on our platform and just like commissioning research in the future to try and cover up some of the content gaps that we’ve seen. 

So, the second pillar is educational materials. So, from what we’ve experienced, there is quite a lot of fragmentation of the different online safety resources. Education materials are normally quite dispersed across multiple sites, and it really makes it quite time consuming for educators and end users to really find what they’re looking for. 

So, what we’ve done is we’ve aggregated open-source education materials and training tools that’s catering to teachers, parents and student students of all ages. And we’re also creating an additional page on the platform. So, under the educational pillar that’s going to have like some top tips, or you know, like discussion guides for parents and teachers who may not even know where to start when it comes to, you know, like online safety issues or how to even bring up certain issues with their children.  

The third pillar is around the funding opportunities. So, stakeholders and practitioners hoping to address the different online safety issues don’t really have you know, the easiest access to the funding that’s actually required, you know to effectively respond to just the scale of the challenges that we’ve mentioned, and we’ve been seeing. And also finding funding can be such a complex and a very competitive process. And I think from the previous grantees that we’ve had; you’d have a lot of organizations that are focused on tackling the exact same online safety challenge. But you know, someone is sitting in Kenya, someone else is sitting in Nigeria and, you know there is just very little collaboration, very little communication between the two. So, you know, like on our platform, we just allow for there to be that cross change of information. 

 
So, on our platform, we’ve got the whole list of the different grantees that have received funding before, and you know, just like some quick links to see what exactly they’ve been working on, and you know what similarities exist between the different grantees. And then we’ll also just be housing different information on the different funds that become available, you know, like in the future. 

 
And then the last, the fourth pillar is on victim support. So only a small percentage of the countries in Africa have every layer of what would be needed to really bring, you know, like cybercriminals, to justice in place. 

 
Even though some may have legal frameworks in place, they may not have enforcement infrastructure that’s actually required to, you know, like help support the law. So, we have on our side just to how to get help sections. So, on this page, you know like if you become a victim of cybercrime or you want to report but don’t really know where to go, you just go on the help section and on there you can, you know, search for exactly which country you’re in. And you know there’s a whole list of the different legislations, there’s a whole list of the different enforcement agencies that that are available in the country that you’ve selected. So those are the four pillars that are on the platform. 

 
Craig Butler 
Thank you very much Heather. Could you share some of the key findings from your recent research and explain the insights that are shaping your approach to online safety in Africa? 

 
Lorryn Williams  
Certainly. One of our main goals is not only to address the lack of available research as we have mentioned, but also to ensure that we’re helping the most vulnerable populations in the most effective way possible. That means focusing our attentions on specific vulnerable populations. 

 
So, through our research we’ve identified specific groups that are both highly vulnerable and significantly under researched when it comes to online safety in Africa. For example, we have women and children, particularly female journalists, female politicians or women working in feminist organizations are often targeted online. They face various forms of discrimination, like being targeted by masculine narratives, being the victims of sexual harassment or intimidation tactics. They sometimes, women are threatened with violence and are on the receiving end of hate speech. 

 
We’ve also seen an alarming rise in crimes like sextortion or revenge porn, which can also be facilitated through AI now. Children, another group that faces considerable risks, they’re vulnerable to being trafficked through social media, sexual exploitation by online predators also often facilitated by social media, cyberbullying on social media, recruitment into extremist groups as well, and also being exposed to misinformation that they will always be able to identify as such. 

 
However, the real challenge is that we still don’t fully understand the extent of the vulnerabilities, especially in Africa. How they occur, where they occur, and how to best intervene to reduce these risks. 

 
So as Heather mentioned, also through our partnership with google.org, we are actively funding organizations across Africa, that are implementing solutions to protect these vulnerable groups and researching these communities more deeply will allow us to make informed decisions when it comes to the initiatives, we fund to solve the problems that we’ve identified. If we truly want to design effective interventions, we need to understand the experiences in a more comprehensive way. Only then can we address the vulnerabilities in the most impactful manner. 

 
Craig Butler 
Additionally, how is Africa Online Safety Platform working to increase awareness and education about online safety, particularly among different age groups like young women and girls? What strategies have proven most effective for the organization? 

 
Heather Mahachi 
As mentioned earlier, so the platform offers that best practice educational content and training tools for the different audiences. So, this really ensures that everyone you know, from children to adults, has the knowledge they actually need to navigate the digital world safely. 

 
But that’s not all. So just in addition to the platform, so we’re also collaborating with and supporting local NGOs in various countries to raise awareness about online safety, particularly for women and girls. Just a quick example. So, in Ghana, we are supporting the training of high school girls through quite an incredible initiative called the My Power App. So, this app equips young girls with digital literacy skills, you know, and promotes digital well-being and healthy social media habits. 

 
So, the app is really designed to help them develop the skills and the confidence needed to safely navigate the online space and something that’s also really cool about this My Power app is that they have a helpline that’s built into the app. So, the helpline just offers them, you know, access to mental health support if they need it. And the My Power app is just one of the examples of organizations that we’re working with.  

You know, I think our approach really prioritizes partnering with organizations that already have deep rooted relationships, and you know, like ongoing initiatives within their local communities. So, we’ve kind of seen that by collaborating with these local partners, you know who have a more in-depth cultural knowledge and already have existing networks. You know, we can really ensure that the programs being implemented are both relevant and effective.  

And I think if we really ask ourselves, you know, like, why is this so important and how is it so effective? I would say that these partnerships really allow us to build on what’s already working, you know. So, for example, many organizations have already successfully integrated digital literacy into existing educational frameworks, you know, in their communities, in their regions. But with our support, we are helping them to really like amplify their success and you know also just seeing that in other communities, we can also replicate you know like the same models that we’ve seen to work out quite well. 

 
Craig Butler 
What measures does the African Online Safety Platform have in place to support victims of online abuse and harassment, and how do they ensure that they can access the resources that they need? 

 
Also, how crucial is funding to the success of these initiatives and what steps are taken to secure sustainable funding for continued growth and expansion of your work? 

 
Heather Mahachi 
So I would say that the key resource really is our help page. So, where victims can find, you know, crucial information. So, including exact contact details for local enforcement agencies across the various African countries. You know, this really enables people to be able to report incidences of online abuse quite quickly and easily, no matter where they are. But we’re not stopping there, so not just stopping at the help page and how it is, but I think we’re also putting a bit more effort into our partnerships, so you know we’re actively working to expand these resources even further. 

 
So, our goal is to provide more detailed, you know step by step guides that really explain the different reporting processes in detail for every single country in Africa. And you know, we think that this is crucial because it really ensures that the victim fully understands how to navigate the legal system in their region and, you know, access the support that they need. 

 
And then to answer your second question, so funding is absolutely vital to the success and expansion of these programs. But we know that it’s not just about finding the money, it’s also just about ensuring that the funding is sustainable. By collaborating as a network, you know you can apply for funding together, which not only helps us, you know, like avoiding duplicated efforts, but really strengthens our collective impact. I think that we understand, you know who’s doing what in the field, it really allows us to align our efforts more effectively, apply for funding more efficiently and, you know, just ultimately promote long term growth for the different online safety programs across Africa. 

 
Craig Butler 
Lauren, did you have anything to add there? 

 
Lorryn Williams  
Yes, I just want to shed light on what she spoke of some of the partnerships and how crucial it is to have those partnerships. We have partnered with the African Union recently, who has developed the policy on child safety and child online safety, and that policy needs to be adopted and distributed amongst other African countries to allow them to enforce it, to understand it, and we play a crucial part in allowing that to happen. 

With regards to some of the research, also with women and gender-based violence and curbing that, we’ve also partnered with a university here in South Africa, called the Durban University of Technology. They have a specific unit called the Gender Justice Unit, and with them we are partnering to conduct robust research, especially as it relates to women safety online. 

 
Craig Butler 
Online safety and social media literacy are critical in today’s digital landscape, particularly for young individuals who are increasingly engaged with online platforms. Online safety involves protecting oneself from various digital threats, including cyberbullying, online predators and misinformation. While social media literacy focuses on understanding how to navigate and interact with these social platforms responsibly. 

 
How does a lack of online safety and social media literacy impact young African women ability to engage in digital entrepreneurship? What steps can be taken to bridge those gaps and provide better support for young women aspiring to enter the digital economy. 

 
Lorryn Williams  
Thank you for that, Craig. I think, let’s just get clarity on digital entrepreneurship because it’s not a common concept. So digital entrepreneurship is basically, in the context of women, women trading through online platforms like social media or partnerships with brands and all these kinds of things but having a business that exists online instead of in the in the physical world. 

 
We’ve already discussed some of the dangers that women face online, particularly as a vulnerable group. But just to reiterate it, because I think it’s important for people to really understand what it is that women do experience when they’re online. The rise of masculinity narrative, sexual harassment, intimidation tactics, threats of violence that often turn into real violence in the real world as well, hate speech, sextortion, and revenge porn. And you see how daunting it can be for women to fully participate in the digital world, given these threats that exist, especially for women. 

 
So, with the rise of internet use, there’s a growing reliance on the digital economy, much of which is driven by social media. Therefore, it’s essential for women to be able to engage in the space. In fact, it’s crucial, since there are many benefits that come with being able to generate an income. 

 
As a woman myself working remotely and navigating the digital landscape, I rely on having a safe online environment. While I don’t sell or trade on a digital platform, I can easily imagine the challenges women face when they do trade online. 

 
Women are far more likely to be digitally illiterate as well, compared to their male counterparts, and also have less access to the internet in general, particularly in Africa. There are countless sociological reasons for why this is the case, but we could spend hours unpacking that. 

 
When young women and girls adopt digital technologies, it opens up incredible opportunities. They can access new markets; they can gain vital information and services, they can become more efficient and competitive in the digital economy through maintaining thriving social media sales platforms, hosting thriving online stores, or becoming monetized influencers. 

 
Now, what steps can be taken to bridge this gap for women because currently women are being kept out of the digital economy. We need to pay closer attention to what the barriers are that women face when trying to enter the digital economy, including the rates of access and the reasons behind the success or struggles of African female digital entrepreneurs. 

 
It all starts, though, with conducting thorough research, designing targeted interventions and continually evaluating the impact of those efforts. But we can’t do it alone. It requires a collaborative effort involving governments, private organizations, and educators to truly make a difference and provide support that women need to thrive. 

 
Craig Butler 
Adding on to my previous question, it’s also important to consider, in the context of participation in the digital economy, what are the key factors that either promote or hinder the involvement of young African women and girls in this space, and how can policy makers, educators and the private sector entities work together to remove those barriers and encourage a more active participation? 

 
Lorryn Williams  
That is another critical question, Craig, and it’s one that we’ve been focusing on at the Africa Online Safety Platform. Right now, we’re conducting research to explore whether understanding online masculinist movements can help to inform the design of a technology facilitated gender-based violence risk assessment toolkit for Africa. 

 
Now the reason this is so important is that societal norms and gender stereotypes that are perpetuated online often discouraged women and girls from engaging in the digital space, not just through entrepreneurship but to just exist online. This contributes to significant under representation of women in fields like information communication technology or, as we call it ICD.  

For instance, in South Africa, only 2.9% of female graduates in ICT fields are employed even though women make up 22% of the graduates in that sector. And that is a huge gap. How do we then fix this? The solution lies in the intersection of policymakers, educators, and private organizations working together. As an example, our organization, the Impact Amplifier Foundation, who spearhead the Africa Online Safety Platform, is conducting research and developing a gendered risk index specifically for women in Africa. However, for this initiative to have real impact, we’ll need policy makers, particularly governments, to adopt this international cybersecurity strategies. At the same time, educators must be empowered and encouraged to get more girls involved in ICT and digital entrepreneurship from an early age. And organizations like ours need to be invested and committed in developing, testing and scaling solutions that address these challenges and that obviously also includes funding. 

 
Ultimately, it’s going to take a collaborative effort. Private organizations like ours need to keep supporting and driving impact, while governments and educators must play an active role in ensuring that women and girls are not only encouraged but empowered to participate in this digital economy. 

 
Craig Butler 
As online threats continue to evolve and grow, it’s become increasingly crucial to have robust frameworks to effectively address the challenges to ensure comprehensive online safety. 

 
In light of these emerging threats and the need for effective solutions, let’s delve into the online danger framework. Could you explain what this framework entails, how it operates and why it’s particularly important for African countries in navigating and mitigating these evolving online risks.  

 
Lorryn Williams  
We just spoke about the gender risk index that we’re also developing through research about masculinity narratives and how it influences women’s ability to operate safely online. The online dangers framework is designed to address online safety for all groups across the board. In terms of how it works, the dangerous framework is a living document. It results from a comprehensive process of mapping and scoring the various online safety themes that impact a country as a whole. It indicates where national leadership might need to step in to protect its citizens from online threats. The framework not only outlines how effectively a country can ensure online safety at any given moment, but it also ranks countries based on their level of vulnerability. Now, why is this important to do? Currently there’s no all-encompassing cyber safety map that evaluates the adequacy or lack of adequacy of online safety and security for all African nations. 

 
Many aspects of online safety are overlooked, which leaves gaps in prediction. Now, developing a country for specific online dangers framework would allow stakeholders, whether they in government, the private sector or civil society, to identify these gaps and areas of oversight. This in turn enables the creation of targeted interventions and opportunities for international collaboration to close those safety gaps. It also provides a way to track the progress of ensuring that African citizens are safe online. As improvements and interventions are made, it helps to measure the impact of the overall safety of the country’s online environment by addressing specific danger components that are mapped out. Countries can take a more strategic approach doing this one thing, cyber safety. ultimately closing the gaps over time will not only make a country safer online, but also increase its attractiveness to investors and of course investments boost the economy, which in turn raises the standards of living for its citizens. 

 
So, this framework doesn’t just promote online safety. In fact, it has the potential to drive broader economic and social benefits as well. 

 
Craig Butler 
As we continue to explore the significance of the online dangers framework, it’s essential to understand how this functions in practice. Could you describe how the processes of a mapping and online safety themes work, including the main criteria used in an assessment. What roles do national leaders play in utilizing this framework to protect their citizens, and how does it assist in ranking countries based on their vulnerabilities? 

 
Lorryn Williams 
Okay. So, the online dating framework is made-up of 11 components, each with its with its set of subcomponents. I won’t go through all 11 components. Otherwise, we’ll be for another 30 minutes, but I will highlight a few key components. 

 
So, one critical component is understanding the pervasive online dangers for a specific country. This would provide an overview of the most pressing online threats that that are facing a specific country. One of the key outcomes here is the identification of knowledge gaps, which can then, number one, inform the direction of future research for that country and guide the development of new interventions needed to tackle these dangers. 

We also have the legal and regulatory framework as a component. This part of the framework evaluates the extent to which a country’s laws provide protection against cyberthreats. All of the cyberthreats that we’ve spoken about, whether it’s sexual exploitation, trafficking, hate speech, terrorist recruitment, misinformation, anything you can think of. Many countries, as Heather mentioned earlier, do not have these kinds of laws in place. We need to be able to track to what extent the country can protect its citizens from these things, because whether they are laws to protect citizens or not, these things are happening. 

 
Then also we have public awareness component which focuses on mapping out the existence of awareness campaigns led by the public sector as well as if it’s to engage other sectors in educating citizens about online safety. 

 
You also asked me Craig, about what role national governments can play. So, national governments play a key role in utilizing the dangerous framework. By consulting online safety experts, providing access to research and allowing assessments of their laws and response systems, governments can strengthen their online safety strategies. The Framework also ranks countries based on vulnerability and offers a clear road map for improvement and future interventions, while encouraging local interventions to participate and very importantly, measure the impact of their efforts. Because if we don’t measure the impact of our efforts, we won’t know that we’re actually making a difference. 

 
Craig Butler 
We’re now coming to the end of this week’s inside the sweeps. Are there any closing comments or thoughts you’d like to leave us with Heather and Lorryn? 

 
Heather Mahachi 
Well, for me I would just say thanks for having us. I was a little bit nervous, but I think you know, once you really just get into the rhythm of it, it’s great. I mean, I might consider doing podcasts more often. I think that would be great, but yeah, thanks for having us and I really hope that this has been quite an informative session. 

 
Craig Butler 
Definitely. And Lorryn, anything from you to add? 

 
Lorryn Williams  
Yes. So, I would love people who listen to this podcast to please reach out to us. We are on almost all social media platforms, so please do go to the website which is africaonlinesafety.com, on Facebook and LinkedIn, we are Africa Online Safety Platform, those 4 words. On Twitter we are @africaonlinesafetyplatform. Also make sure to use the platform for any research needs or understanding, or even just personal interest. 

 
You can also, if you are an academic institution or any institution that does research, you can contribute research that you feel is relevant to the African context, to the platform, and you obviously be acknowledged in that. Also, we are open to receiving any educational materials that would be relevant for the African context. You can reach out to us by going on the platform, there is a little Contact Us under the about page, or you can just e-mail us at info@africaonlinesafety.com. 

 
Craig Butler 
It’s been wonderful to share this time with you and get a greater understanding of what the African Online Safety Platform has to offer and amazing work that you’re doing for the continent. 

 
Thank you both again for your time and we really hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside the Sweeps. 

 
Lorryn Williams   
Thank you. 

 
Heather Mahachi 
Thank you.