Web Rangers Programme - South Africa

The specific programme objectives are to:

• Improve participants' digital and media literacy skills, ensuring they can develop into active digital citizens.
• Create and promote awareness around safe and responsible internet usage so participants are empowered to take ownership of their digital footprint.
• Empower participants to voice their views and grow their understanding of how media works and to critically engage with news and information they receive.
• Ensure that young people are in a position to take full advantage of the opportunities that the digital and media environments have to offer in order to make South Africa a better place.

As MMA explains, the programme is about "creating young digital citizens who know how to use the internet responsibly and encourage their peers to do the same. It is grounded in the belief that when young people possess digital and media literacy skills, they can develop their own capabilities and become active citizens who contribute to the development of the country. Further to this, they can have the skills to self-regulate and protect themselves from risk and potential harm including cyber-bullying and inappropriate sexual conduct online." A key characteristic of the programme is that young people learn and empower other young people to use the internet responsibly and positively and to engage with news and information in a sceptical manner.

The schools that form part of the programme are selected by MMA together with partners and are mainly from semi-urban and economically disadvantaged areas. From each school, 10 learners, aged between 12 and 17 years, are selected to represent their school. The selected Web Rangers then attend training workshops to develop their digital literacy and build their digital citizenship skills. These are conducted with the help of the "Web Rangers Learner Toolkit" [PDF], which includes information on how the internet and search engines work, the positive and negative sides of the internet, and how to protect oneself from the dangers of the internet and social media. It also offers guidance on how to develop a "Know My Digital World Campaign" to promote awareness of what they have learned with their peers and other learners at their school.

Following the training, Web Rangers are tasked with designing their campaign and are given four months to do so. Campaigns can, for example: focus on identifying misinformation or disinformation; involve creating awareness on what to do about online dangers - e.g., blocking people on Facebook or reporting online crimes to parents, teachers, and even the police; or involve an activity that shows how the internet can be used to make South Africa a better place. The Web Rangers are then encouraged to do presentations on their projects to peers and share what they have learned. Ultimately, the campaigns are meant to form part of a competition, and Web Rangers' schools submit their campaigns (via video) to a panel of judges who will select the best campaigns to win prizes. Click here to view some of the campaign videos.

The programme also involves an advocacy component in the form of the Article 12 Working Group. This group is made up of Web Ranger ambassadors who have been trained in digital literacy and have a special interest in policy work. Article 12 members engage in information and communication technology (ICT)-related policy submissions and discussions that ensure young people's voices are heard and that their opinions are considered by policymakers and industry leaders. Article 12 members will, for example, work on submissions to ensure that policies and decisions that affect children are more child friendly and relevant and relatable to children and their daily lives. Click here to read a 2023 submission to the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on Children's Rights and the Environment with a Special Focus on Climate Change.

The programme in South Africa has also developed two comic books to help children better understand mis- and disinformation. The comics, which were developed by Web Rangers and Article 12 members, with the support of MMA and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) South Africa, include:

1. Luthando's MisAdventure with Mis- & DisInformation [2021, PDF] - deals with misinformation and shows how an innocent conversation between two people about an unknown issue has the potential to cause great harm.
2. Nkhosana, Our Brave Hero! [February 2023, PDF] - deals with the concept of disinformation and shows how one person creates a disinformation post (on monkeypox and homosexuality) that has great potential to cause harm.

See the Web Rangers South Africa website and Facebook page for more information.