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FPB to institute cyber inspectors

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 04 Oct 2006

The Film & Publications Board (FPB) wants to appoint content analysts to investigate complaints of child pornography, and children`s access to pornography over the Internet and other electronic mediums.

The content analysts would in effect be "cyber inspectors", says FPB CEO Shokie Bopape-Dlomo. They would work on a reactive basis by following up public complaints logged with the board`s hotline. However, they will also have the right to explore and lodge their own complaints through the random checking of local sites, she says.

She says the appointment of such content analysts has been in planning for some time by the FPB and it follows on from several local conferences that addressed the issue of children`s access to pornography on the Internet.

The plan has been drawn up in consultation with British non-governmental organisation Internet Watch Forum, which advocates co-operation with law enforcement and disseminates information on how to curb children`s access to pornography.

Co-operation

According to the Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) Act, the Department of Communications was supposed to have appointed cyber inspectors to do just that; however, none have been appointed in the four years of the Act`s existence, says Lance Michalson, of Michalsons Infotech Attorneys.

"We have only recently become aware of the requirements of that Act and we want to work with the department to implement the content analyst programme," Bopape-Dlomo says.

She says officials from the Department of Home Affairs, the government department under which the FPB falls, and the Department of Communications have met and are discussing ways in which they can work together.

"The political intervention has been done, in that the relevant ministers have met. It is now a matter for the officials to work together," Bopape-Dlomo says.

She says the discussions also surround the appropriate place for the FPB, which means it could be transferred to either communications, or some other government department, such as arts and culture.

The Department of Communications had not responded to ITWeb`s queries by the time of publication.

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