THE ETHICS OF CYBER CITIZENS

Believe it or not, Mr. and Miss USIU pageant is a charity event. With proceeds from the varsity shindig managing the sustenance of student-ran community service projects, USIU is proof of beauty and brains for community development. The lingering plight, however, is the flack that both pageantry and charity attract. Haven't the beautiful ones suffered enough?

On October 5 th , two Standard newspaper reporters landed a similar-sided coin. A policeman in Sotik county bragged to his Facebook friends about defiling a minor. He shared explicit photos of the minor after assaulting her. In Kirinyaga West county, two traffic police officers, Officer Agnes Magiri and Constable Serah Mwihaki, stripped a schoolgirl, took pictures of her and shared them on Facebook.

The minors in this two settings were mistreated and had their dignity ripped away from them, like an old band-aid to a fresh wound.

In 2009, USIU-A Marketing and Communications department started the process of creating, cataloging and archiving online content for the consumption of the university stakeholders on social media. Before 2009, hate-mail was unheard of in USIU's active streams of public communique, such as suggestion boxes and e-mail. As the gate-keeper of USIU' social, Dan Muchai, the Internal Communications Coordinator, vigilantly moderates the digital arm of campus communications.

“Online harassment directs multiple repeating obscenities or derogatory comments at a specific individual,” said Mr. Muchai. Derogatory comments may focus, for example, on the individual's race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation or even physical appearance. USIU has a clear social media policy that discourages online harassment amongst its faculty, students, alumni and all other varsity stakeholders.

In college, there is a lot of cyberbullying around judgment on physical appearances, spreading unhinged rumors and ugly gossip about certain individuals. Freedom of speech and expression is a human right. However, as learned individuals, we must remember the great Rihanna/Robert Fulghum's influential saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” The internet did not create bullies; hate is a pathology that takes any form. Even though the Web may seem alluring to haters due to its sense of anonymity, love will always conquer all.

Singer Kelly Rowland once asked us, “How deep is your love? How deep does it go?” May the words that we write and utter be those of love. Hate is an ugly look for a campus filled to the brim with beauty and brains. Spread the love, that it may penetrate the dark, hate-filled cracks of the deep dark web. May our words be intentional, that it may fill the earth with positive energy - like waters of African rivers that run deep, wild and free.

-By Student Journalist, Wacera N.