Google promotes online safety in Africa

Impact Accelerator (IA), with funding from Google, has launched the Africa Online Safety Platform. News24 reports that it offers access to research, educational content, funding opportunities and support for victims of cybercrime. Other issues the platform aims to combat include misinformation, cyberbullying and supporting targeted journalists, among others. Through the platform, users can access research, educational content, funding opportunities, and ways to get help when faced with cybercrime. ‘The African internet safety ecosystem is hindered by several issues, key among them is the lack of a central repository of all the online safety research that has been conducted on a broad spectrum of issues in Africa,’ IA said. The purpose of the site is to address the complexity of understanding what online safety issues are affecting different parts of the African continent and ways to keep internet users, especially the youth, safe online.