A nice post about digital citizenship - a view from Egypt

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Sherif Issa
From: Sherif Issa
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2019 9:26 PM
To: 'AA MY DATA LIN (sherif.issa@gmail.com)'
Cc: Sherif Issa
Subject: [New post] Guest Blog: Digital citizenship in Africa: a view from Egypt
New post on FOSI GRID Blog
Guest Blog: Digital citizenship in Africa: a view
from Egypt
by fosigridblog
Guest Blogger: Sherif Issa
Sherif Issa is the Head of Health and Environment, at the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services,
Mobinil, where he ensures regulatory compliance of mobile networks and manages several sustainable
development projects. His special interests and experience include how mobile applications can be
used to improve the lives of people in the Third World, Internet safety and protecting children from
harmful online content, as well as a range of environmental issues and ‘Green ICT’.
Digital citizenship is similar to offline citizenship in many countries: it has many benefits
and responsibilities, but what makes it special is that it is easier to gain, keep and includes
far more compatriots than any country on the planet - try 3 billion citizens!
The way I see it, digital citizenship has helped the peoples of developing countries more
so than developed ones. The Internet blessed us with the ability to communicate, speak
freely and widely, share ideas, access enormous amounts of information and join
communities that were for a long time limited to a select few.
As we are celebrating digital Africa this month, I would like to share my views as a digital
African citizen.

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Phenomenal growth in online participation.
The rate of Internet penetration, whether broadband or old fashioned dial-up connection
has been exponential. Internet subscribers grew from 5 million in 2005 to 32 million
currently. In less than 3 years, 50 million Egyptians will be accessing the Internet.
Our culture really affects how we use the Internet.
We’re not good readers but we love to socialize, talk and make jokes. We have high
illiteracy rates and therefore it is normal to find that the highest visited sites in Egypt are
social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Masrawy, a local SNS and news site.
In a recent survey made by GSMA and the Japanese mobile service provider, NTT
Docomo, on how Egyptians deal with social networking sites, there were 3 stages:
• Visiting – 58% of people interviewed said they only visited Facebook or Twitter or
Yammer, whatever the choice was. They wanted to test the waters and explore for
themselves the world of social media but were afraid to go any further. They were
happy to just watch.
• Using – 47% said they used SNS. These were becoming more interactive, pressing
‘likes’ and ‘re-tweeting’ things. Their behavior was mostly reactive.
• Communicating – 13% were the ones who initiated discussions, established groups
and may very well be responsible for starting Egypt’s revolution! The communicators
are mostly young and highly skilled people: digital natives to whom the online world is
second nature.
Challenges of online safety. How do parents feel about it?
Unfortunately, parents in Egypt are not so concerned about online safety, at least not until
now. For any or all of these reasons, I say:
1. Parents are not fully aware of the dangers; and that’s where awareness is important.
Most people don’t know about access restriction (filtering services). Even those with
high standards of living and education may have never heard that filtering services
exist.
2. Prudent and careful use of the Internet is highly advised but not enforced in any way
by official authorities. Guidelines for parents and community from the Ministry of

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Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) are available but are not widely
known.
3. Many parents are just happy to see their children handling technology so well. They
forget, or deliberately neglect online safety. They think it is a secondary or luxury
point that can be worried about later.
I don’t agree with the second point at all. From what I see now, the threats that
accompany online activities like cyber bullying, identity theft or spam are alive and well in
our community and, for that lack of concern, they are growing steadily and dangerously.
Yahki. A 100% Egyptian social network site.
“Need is the mother of invention” and this new site proves it. Yahki (in Arabic it means ‘to
tell’, usually a story) capitalizes on the successes of other SNS and wide appeal they
have in Egypt.
Yahki’s idea is to gather posts addressing a certain topic and consolidating them in one
location so readers don’t have to go back and forth searching the Internet. Simple but
effective and just tells us how much Egyptians are fond of social networks.
fosigridblog | Feb 27, 2013 at 12:34 pm | Tags: Africa, Egypt, Online Safety, Parental Controls, Safer Internet Day, Social
Networks | Categories: Guest Blog | URL: http://wp.me/p2AfY5-5c
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