How Can We Help Digital Natives Shape Their Safer Digital Future?

Hello, and welcome to this episode. I'm Angeline Corvaglia. And today, I'm really happy to be here talking to Evelyn Kasina, a digital learning and trust and safety leader and founder and CEO of Eveminet Communication Solutions Ltd. in Kenya. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Could you tell us more about the work you do?

So when we look at that whole ecosystem, we are really playing with every participant who has a direct or indirect seed to a child.

Like now we have AI, which is now bringing even new Emerging Threats. Then we're like, okay, we don't have legislation around AI. And everybody's like, we're playing catch up. Yeah. Parents as well. I call Kenyan parents firefighters because I think every one of us has a fire extinguisher on our back.

And I find that very stressful for parents as well. And because we, we want the best for our children, even how we react towards supporting them sometimes comes out the wrong way. So the child starts feeling like, these people don't understand. These people are so old. They want to take away the things that we are using in terms of entertainment.

And once I realized, just pulling back to some of the things that are our biggest undoing, when I'm talking to the children, and then I'll say, Okay, fine, I know you people want me to give your parents feedback around how you manage technology. What would you want me to tell them? And they will say a ray of things.

Cause they need to understand that they need to trust that even when they mess up doing some stuff on the internet, they can fall back on us. So I created a curriculum where it is really based on, can we integrate our values in some of the things that we're doing at home? When we are giving our children the privileges of having a phone or being on the internet and stuff like that, can it come with our expectations that are reasonable?

Then, of course, when I'm with them in class, I keep pushing the responsibility by showing them, you know, real-life situations of people who have done very well because of what they're engaging in and the bad side of the internet. Because we, we always can't paint it as doom and gloom. It is not, it really isn't a doom and gloom.

Then the teachers will realize, oh yeah, our students are actually maturing in a space where they can call us out on some of the things we are doing. Very simple things like, when we are out on a school trip, please, when you're taking photos and videos of us, would you please ask for consent? Because again, respect goes both ways.

I can't imagine living as a teenager where my every move can be tracked by a not only tech companies, but also my parents. I don't, that's really hard to, to grow up independent in that, in that situation.

Oh, it is, it is, it's definitely. It feels like you're being spied, like every one of your moves is being spied upon, like there's no privacy at all.

Do you feel that, like, especially adults in Kenya who are trying to deal with kids who maybe are more influenced by the American way of life, that there's also a challenge there that maybe the society in general and that families are having to deal with?

So definitely is something to watch out for. Something to be aware and not just be aware, but being intentional on the fact that as much as they're learning new things, because I do believe when they're on the internet and they're learning different perspectives, it's really good for them to have those different global perspectives.

I think so too. And I think that it's underestimated at the moment. We were discussing before we started recording that it's underestimated the importance of actually not losing the various global cultures to this multinational, international software companies.

So I, I want to believe that the companies are going to figure this out.

This is why certain medicine is called what is called. It came from this place. It came from this plant. And it's untapped, really. If you look at it, it's an opportunity which is untapped that we need to be able to feed onto these language models in a way that creates what you've just said, diversity. And diversity is good.

I love what you're doing. How can we best enhance children's digital well being, like, aside from what you were describing before, what have you found the most effective?

So it's simple, like, you know, making them know that there is a line like we have the child helpline that is toll-free. It is just three numbers. They can call it and express themselves in a way that communicates that they're uncomfortable or they have a certain discomfort. So, and also now out of that, helping them to decompress.

Can you try and explain what funny means? Then at least they know. When they're getting to a point of anxiety, they need to do certain things to come down fast. Because they need to be in control of their well being. Even as much as they want to get support from maybe an adult who understands how to support them.

So we also ask them. In a case like this, and we paint a scenario for them, how would you get yourself out, or how would you resolve a certain incident? And they come up with solutions for themselves, and they're like, okay, carry that along and train more people to do something similar.

So even when we are involving them, I think it really, really does go a long way. It does.

And I hope we can continue doing this again and again. I mean, we don't need to stop it at episode one. We can do more episodes. Absolutely. Yeah, we will.

Absolutely. So I'm looking forward to it already. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for coming. Bye. Thank you. Bye.

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Until next time, stay curious and keep learning!