Gov't planning to regulate explicit late night TikTok content- CS Owalo

ICT CS Eliud Owalo said on Wednesday that, where necessary, the ministry will impose stricter measures to close loopholes that allow social media platforms to be abused.

Expressing concern about the now-popular trend of TikTok users going live during the wee hours of the night -11pm to 3am-sharing explicit content, Owalo stated that they will review the law guidelines to protect social media users.

"If there is a way that we should strengthen the existing policy and regulatory framework we will go ahead and do that. If there are concerns with feasible proposals on how we can improve the Computer Misuse and Cyber Crimes Act 2019 we are willing to review and update the act while in partnership with other arms of government like the National Assembly," he said.

"That has guidelines within the confines of the law that we should not exploit children in the cyberspace and let us start with self-introspections as Kenyans."

He was speaking during an interview with NTV.

Owalo further urged Kenyans to also take personal responsibility and aid in the fight against cybercrimes, noting that with the vast scale at which social media has permeated society, it is tough to contain it within the purview of the law.

"I have said and I want to repeat that we may have laws that must also be augmented with the responsibility of Kenyans. We cannot leave everything to law. The law may exist but we still dance around the law. We must change the mindset of the people," he said.

The CMCA Act provides for offences relating to computer systems to enable timely and effective detection, prohibition, prevention, response, investigation and prosecution of computer and cybercrimes.

Some of the offences include Cyber espionage, unauthorised access to ICT systems, publication of false information, child pornography, identity theft, cyber harassment, and cyberterrorism, among others.