The Department of Home Affairs recently announced that it will develop an inter-departmental protocol on the protection of children against child pornography. This decision was taken at a meeting of Deputy Ministers with Basic Education, Mr Enver Surty and Social Development, Ms Bathabile Dlamini, present and Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Malusi Gigaba convening the meeting. They received a briefing from the Film and Publication Board on the campaign against child pornography.

Home Affairs Deputy Minister, Mr Malusi Gigaba, said, “The lack of statistics about child pornography should not lead us to being complacent in protecting children. The increase of access to technology and mobile internet, with all its benefits, also poses risks such as creation and distribution of child pornography. We need to be proactive in protecting children against this heinous crime.”

Gigaba, suggested that, “South Africa should explore an outright ban on pornography in the public media as is the practice in countries such as China and India.” To this extent, the Deputy Minister will approach the Law Reform Commission with a view to requesting them to investigate and advice on the possibility of such a move.

The Register points out that the Chinese government, which goes to great lengths to enforce its ban on internet pornography, has the benefit of the Great Firewall to repel the porn-addled tubes of foreign nations more effectively.

In South Africa the banning of porn may prove far more challenging than in China, and the fact that child porn is typically not distributed through publically available websites further questions the wisdom of Gigaba’s comments.

According to an anonymous industry expert, well versed in the online legal environment, any steps taken to deal with child pornography are welcome, but they should be very targeted at addressing the problem itself to ensure that such interventions do not have unintended consequences.

According to the industry source it is already law that reasonable steps must be taken to ensure that a child is not exposed to pornography, which questions the enforcement of the law and questions whether changing the law will have any positive effect.

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