Njambi Ndiba via Compfight

By Anne Collier, Guest Columnist

Over the holidays our family watched the amazing documentary A Small Act  about Kenyan Chris Mburu, a UN human rights lawyer, wanting to give young Kenyans the education opportunities he had because of the sponsorship of a retired Swedish schoolteacher and Holocaust survivor, Hilde Back (Mburu started the Hilde Back foundation). In the film, he said that, for many Kenyan children, “education is survival.” It’s not “only” a matter of having better prospects, he said. If we’re educated, we can’t be exploited – or at least, we reduce the likelihood.

The film illustrated that by telling the stories of three bright schoolchildren, Ruth, Caroline, and Kimani. It also illustrated the crucial value of education and media literacy (that turns mere information into education that never stops) everywhere on the planet, empowering as well as protecting people by showing them what they can accomplish and what to avoid in the process of getting there – in and out of digital media, whether or not we’re in a place where it’s ubiquitous. [The digital divide itself is shrinking, as mobile connectivity is taking off.

When the documentary was being made, Chris Mburu's town in central Kenya appeared to have limited access through a few mobile phones. But at the Internet Governance Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan, two months ago, I heard a government minister from Kenya say in a session entitled "Is Internet access a human right?" that in the next 2-3 years, "we will guarantee at least 1 megabyte of access for every household." Whether or not that happens, ubiquitous connectivity is a goal in Kenya, and access to the Internet is increasingly equated with access to education.

Over a year ago, the US ambassador to Kenya said that Kenyans spent 43% of their disposable income on mobile phones (see this) – which is the way people in developing countries access the Net.]

Anne Collier is editor and founder of NetFamilyNews. She co-directs ConnectSafely.org, a Web-based interactive forum and information site for teens, parents, educators, and everybody interested in the impact of the social Web on youth and vice versa. She co-chaired the Obama administrations Online Safety & Technology Working Group, which in June 2010 delivered its report to Congress, “Youth Safety on a Living Internet,” a subject on which Anne frequently speaks. She currently serves on Facebook’s Safety Advisory Board and serves as an advisor to other organizations on the topic.