Introduction
Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing, and aggregation of content amongst virtual communities and networks. Websites and computer programs that allow people to communicate and share information, opinions, pictures, videos, etc. on the internet, especially social networking websites. Cybercrimes are criminal activities that are carried out through means of computers or the Internet. These crimes usually target computers or networks or even utilises them to carry out those attacks. Most of the time, cybercrimes are committed for personal or diplomatic reasons and are rarely with the aim of destroying computers or making a profit.
The Use of Social Media among the Youth of Sierra Leone
The use of social media in Sierra Leone can be useful at times but sometimes, it can be harmful for a lot of young people who have little to no knowledge about the impacts of social media. Bullying and attacks have been the order of the day among the youths of Sierra Leone. People are quick to take to social media whenever they feel aggrieved about certain issues instead of going through the authorities that may be responsible. Citizens’ refusal to go to the right authorities might not be strange as the lack of trust in the authorities is increasing among the citizens.
The Cyber Laws and the People
Sierra Leone has enacted cybercrime laws to reduce the misuse or inappropriate use of social media in the country. But it seems that either the law has not been popularized, people don’t understand the law, or don’t want to recognize it. Now and then, people are experiencing cyberbullying such as body shaming, social media attacks, social media abuses, misinformation, and fraud. The government needs to do more to raise the citizens’ knowledge about cybercrime laws through sensitizations for more public awareness.
Government vs the People on Cybercrime Laws
The citizens usually use social media and radio discussion programs to express their anger on government decisions that is not in their favour. The government, on the other hand, brought this cybercrime law to get control of citizens who use media wrongly. In this, we are seeing the government also protecting its ministries, agencies, and their interest by using the cybercrime laws on citizens that may use media contrary to the cybercrime laws.
Conclusion
We have citizens, politicians, and bloggers being invited to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for questioning because of their comments and posts that may go against the government. Another school of thought might say that the government brought cybercrime laws to seize the freedom of speech or to limit what the citizens may want to say about the government. Cybercrime laws might be good for society if they are well-popularized and are used unbiasedly. Cybercrime laws can guide a person to protect one’s image, especially for people with little or no platforms to defend or protect their images.
