Govt gets tough on child porn
Matome Sebelebele
12 October 2004
President Thabo Mbeki is expected to sign into law new amendments to the Films and Publications Act this month that will compel South Africans to report anyone involved in the production, distribution and possession of child pornography.
The law will make it an offence for computer technicians, Internet cafés and service providers as well as ordinary people to overlook cases of child pornography.
The amendments also increase the minimum sentence from five to ten years.
These are part of efforts to combat the crime such as the one uncovered recently when police arrested a man in Muldersdrift, west of Johannesburg, early this month.
In what the police described as a major breakthrough, the man was arrested for allegedly producing and distributing pornographic material involving children as young as seven-year-old.
Currently, the 1996 Act - which makes the importation, production, possession and distribution of child
pornography an offence - was "vague" and allowed those who are witnesses to such "horrific and appalling" crimes to keep quiet, said the department of home affairs.
Home Affairs Deputy Minister Malusi Gigaba told reporters in Pretoria on Tuesday that government was also contemplating regulating Internet service providers who were keen to help eradicate the scourge.
The move is expected to tighten the authorities' grip on those who turn a blind eye to the production and distribution of child pornography.
"We want to apply the law as strictly as possible," said Gigaba.
Also included in the amendments is a clause stipulating the arrest of South Africans who commit or trade in child pornography elsewhere in the globe.
"This means if a person is suspected of being involved in child pornography outside South Africa, we can arrest him. The amendment does away with the long-winded extradition process," he said.
Gigaba added that government would
set up a hotline in this regard by November, while considering setting up a 24-hour online policing forum.
Source: BuaNews
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