This archive report was first published on 25 November 2019.
On November 21-23, 2019, Google and Content Development and Intellectual Property Trust (CODE-IP) hosted the Web Rangers Africa Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, to address online threats facing youth.
The three-day summit, attended by students from Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, aimed to empower teenagers to become ambassadors of safe and responsible internet use.
Google's online safety program, Web Rangers, has chapters in several countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and others. The program seeks to educate youth on online safety and responsible internet use.
As part of the summit, participants visited the Rowallan Camp in Nairobi, the headquarters of the Kenya Scouts Association, a key partner in the program. The visit provided an opportunity for the visitors to learn how the program is being run practically.
Google also ran a session on Critical Thinking, which aimed to help the youth deeply analyze things and situations instead of just taking them at face value. The program is expected to change how children look at things and make them more inquisitive while helping them to interrogate situations in an indepth manner.
According to Mr. Alex Gakuru, the executive director of CODE-IP, the Critical Thinking program is even more crucial at this time when people are constantly dealing with the issue of Fake News. It is also aimed to help the youth in their online interactions as well as reactions.
Michael Murungi, Government Affairs and Public Policy lead at Google, said that the Critical Thinking program is meant to help Web Rangers and those participating in the program to learn how to apply critical thinking when faced with conflicting situations online.
