Background: Children’s initiation of early sex has several negative implications on their sexual and reproductive health, growth and development. In Ghana, few studies on early sexual debut have focused on adolescents. Therefore, this study examined the prevalence, causes, correlates and effects of early sexual debut among children aged 8 to 17 in Ghana using secondary data from the Department of Children of the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection. Methods: A convergent parallel mixed-method approach guided the study. Descriptive statistics and multivariable binary logistic regression were used to analyse the quantitative data, while thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. Results: The study found that the prevalence of early sexual debut among children was 13.2%, which is more predominant among female children. The main causes of early sexual debut include engaging in sex after watching pornography, self-desire to have sex, and being influenced by alcohol consumption. Also, age, sex, education, marital status, religion, ecological zone, living arrangements, and access to the Internet were significant correlates of early sexual debut. Early sexual debut increases children’s risk of unwanted pregnancy, which leads to the termination of children’s education or induced abortion. Also, early sexual debut had adverse impacts on the wellbeing of pregnant children and increased children’s risk of multiple lifetime sexual partners. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that socio-demographic characteristics of children (e.g., age, sex, education, and marital status) were significant correlates of early sexual debut. Policymakers need to design appropriate interventions, considering the socio-demographic characteristics of children, to curb its occurrence in Ghana.

Children’s access to and usage of the Internet has numerous benefits. However, their Internet access and use may pose risks to them, including cyberbullying, grooming, sexting, and exposure to dangerous materials. These risks may be exacerbated by inadequate supervision of children’s online activities. Therefore, this study examined the prevalence of Internet use, Internet access, and Internet use supervision among children aged 8–17 in Ghana. This study used secondary quantitative and qualitative data from the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 was used to analyze the quantitative data. In contrast, the qualitative data was analyzed using the constant comparison method with the aid of NVivo software version 10. The results showed that 90.5% of children had ever used the Internet. Smartphones (45.7), café facilities (21.7), and laptops/computers (21.6) were the most popular sources of Internet access. More than half of children (56.7) indicated they received little or no supervision when using their smartphones to access the Internet, which could lead to engagement in fraudulent activities, exposure to violent scenes online, and Internet addiction. The study found that most children had never used the Internet and received little or no supervision when accessing the Internet. It is, therefore, recommended that children need to be educated on the benefits and potential risks of excessive Internet use. Also, parents need to supervise and monitor their children’s Internet usage at home.

This paper is a follow-up to a cross-sectional study which employed mix-methods for data collection and analysis to investigate a relationship between mobility and HIV risks amongst 385 fishers in Elmina. It discusses the roles of men and women in fish-for-sex (FFS), reasons for such transactional sexual activity and its implications for HIV risk infection. The theory of gender and power has been utilized to explain gender dynamics in power inequalities, and their effects on interpersonal sexual relationships between males and females within the fishing community. The paper concludes sex-division of labour exists in the study area and thrives on socio-cultural norms and power inequalities, which mainly favours men, as it gives them the power to exploit women through the supply of fish. Another observation from the paper is that as long as the female fishers require capital for their fish trade and the male fishers have greater control over the supply of the fish, the women will have very little basis to negotiate for. The paper therefore establishes linkage between fish-for-sex relationship and risk of HIV exposure among fishers in Elmina. The paper recommends empowerment of female fishers by granting them trading capital to limit their overdependence on male fishers for capital, and prevent them from exchanging sex for fish. The paper also calls for the intensification of education by relevant agencies involved in HIV education on safe sex practices through the use of condoms in fishing communities.

Background: Loneliness affects individuals of all age groups, and mobile fishers are susceptible to loneliness due to the nature of their occupation. However, there is no study examining loneliness and risky behaviours among fishers in Ghana. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine fishers’ mobility history, prevalence of loneliness, predictors of loneliness, effects of loneliness on fishers, coping strategies to address loneliness, and prevalence of risky behaviour among fishers in Elmina, Ghana. Methods: This is a convergent parallel mixed-method study involving 385 fishers in Elmina. A questionnaire and interview guides were used to collect data from respondents. Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s chi-square and Fisher exact tests, and binary logistic regression were used to analyse the quantitative data, while the qualitative data were analysed thematically. Results: From the quantitative findings, most fishers were mobile (54.5%) and travelled alone (45.7%). Approximately 83% of the fishers experienced loneliness. Male fishers (AOR = 0.049; 95% CI = 0.003–0.741; p-value = 0.030), fishers affiliated with the African Traditionalist religion (AOR = 0.043; 95% CI = 0.002–0.846; p-value = 0.038), and fishers who travelled with their working colleagues (AOR = 0.002; 95% CI = 0.000-0.023; p-value = ≤ 0.001), were less likely to be experience loneliness. Feeling bored, isolated and worried/anxious were the main perceived effects of loneliness. Alcohol consumption and finding a companion to spend time with were the main strategies fishers used to cope with their loneliness. Most male fishers consumed alcohol (92.5%; p-value = ≤ 0.001) and spent time with companions (73.5%; p-value = ≤ 0.001) to cope with their loneliness. The quantitative and qualitative findings showed that fishers engaged in risky behaviours (excessive alcohol consumption, casual sex, and smoking marijuana and tobacco). From the quantitative findings, more male fishers engaged in excessive alcohol consumption (97.6% vs. 74.5%; p-value = ≤ 0.001), casual sex (88.2% vs. 61.7%, p-value = ≤ 0.001), smoking marijuana (43.0% vs. 13.0%, p-value = ≤ 0.001) and tobacco (49.4% vs. 19.1%; p-value = 0.001) than female fishers. Conclusions: Loneliness and risky behaviours were common among fishers. Therefore, there is an urgent need to design interventions to help reduce loneliness and risky behaviour among fishers.

In modern society, children actively engage with social media platforms, and Ghana is not an exception to this trend. People have, however, placed an excessive amount of focus on the negative implications of using social media, which has overshadowed the positive effects that it has on children. This study examines the use of social media by children, including their preferred platforms, as well as the positive and negative consequences associated with their usage. This was a cross-sectional study that employed convenient and snowball sampling procedures for data collection and analysis. The study was conducted on 400 children aged 8 to 17 in Tema. The Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT) is the study’s underlying theory. The association between demographic characteristics and correlates of social media usage was examined using bivariate analysis, whereas the qualitative data analysis was guided by thematic analysis. The results show that 87.5% of children have ever used social media, with males being more likely than females to have done so (91.7% vs. 83.5%). The main reason social media platforms are used by children (87%) is for entertainment. TikTok has the highest usage percentage, making up 88.7% of all platforms, according to the findings. Some benefits of social media include communication, entertainment, and resources for creativity, research, and academic work. Also, the detrimental consequences of social media usage comprise exposure to sexually explicit material, addiction in children, and diminished academic achievement in children who become too engrossed in its usage. The study demonstrated that social media is widely used among children in Ghana. TikTok is the most popular social media platform among children, and it is their preferred platform. Parents are urged to encourage their children to use social media platforms for beneficial purposes, and media industry stakeholders should develop and implement initiatives to increase the benefits of social media for children. Regulation and supervision are necessary to mitigate the adverse consequences of children’s social media usage.