Children’s radio program on the use of social media rocks People’s Choice FM

The use of social media amongst children is a subject that is yet to receive attention in Lesotho. The Media Institute of Southern Africa, Lesotho chapter (MISA Lesotho) under Children in the Media project will on Saturday at 09:45am on People’s Choice FM broadcast a programme on the subject. The programme researched, developed and produced by children who are participants of children in the media project is an interactive discussion on issues such as;

1. Challenges faced on social media; Cyber bullying, Addiction, Time Management, Emotional Suppression, Social Anxiety, Materialism.
2. Alternative use of social media.
3. Security measures on social media.

These topics were selected carefully by children in a view to raise awareness amongst their peers and parents. The programme will run for the second time following the 15 minutes programme aired on the same radio station last Saturday 17^th March 2018.

The programme is one of the activities in a UNICEF supported project on continued World Children’s Day commemorated every 20^th November each year another activity under the project children have conducted a research on the use of social media. The research covered pertinent issues facing children online in Lesotho in the district of Maseru, Mafeteng and Leribe. The study will be unveiled in the next few weeks at an event where children from schools and various organization in Maseru will be invited. Its is hoped that findings of the study will inform the development of children’s projects on varying subjects with regards to use of social media.

MISA Lesotho’s Children in the Media project has been going on since 2011. It started with Focus Group Discussions on coverage of the children media to inform development of some of on-going activities in the project. The Focus Group Discussions were video recorded and shared amongst children in the SADC region.

In 2014, children representing Lesotho, South Africa, Zambia and Namibia participated at the regional conference on Media Reporting on Children in the SADC region where MISA Lesotho was represented by Selloane Saka and Tumelo Mohapi. The project also comprises of production of media including publications produced at country, SADC region and international levels.

In Lesotho children produced Children’s Voice magazine with participating children including World Vision’s, Child Counseling Unit’s and MISA Lesotho’s. In Commemoration of 25^th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) together the children from these organizations produced a special edition of Children’s Voice magazine.

At regional level the children contributed some articles from Lesotho, South Africa, Namibia and Zambia to produce In The Zone regional children’s magazine. At international level the same children produced Junior Report.