Although Child Protection Month is just around the corner, Internet service providers (ISPs) are powerless to stop the scourge of child pornography because of conflicting laws
This is according to African Risk Mitigation (ARM) product manager Ross Khan, who says ISPs are meant to - under the Films and Publications Act - clamp down on users who access child porn, but cannot do so because they are not legally allowed to intercept traffic.
Khan explains this is because of the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information (RICA) Act. As a result, he says, ISPs are not conforming to Film and Publication Board (FPB) requirements, which came out in the 2014 amendments to the law, to provide an implementation plan showing how they will prevent the use of sites that host illegal porn.
The end result of this legal clash is that ISPs are infringing the Films and Publications Act so they can comply with RICA, says Khan. "No matter what happens, they will be infringing an Act."
Raging problem
Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) regulatory advisor Dominic Cull previously said: "Under South African law, ISPA's members are regarded as conduits through which Internet traffic passes and are not permitted to monitor or intercept such traffic. The only exception is when a member is approached by SAPS [the South African Police Service] to intercept and monitor traffic after due legal process has been followed."
ARM business development manager Lauren Spooner adds ISPs are happy to put measures in place to stop people accessing child pornography, but would only do so once the laws no longer clash. ARM is the local distributor for NetClean, software that scans, identifies and blocks child sexual abuse images and videos in real-time.
Spooner notes ARM has been in talks with ISPs to persuade them to implement NetClean, but has had no success. "It is something that needs to be addressed."
Child porn is among the fastest growing industries globally, adds Spooner. She notes South Africa is one of the countries with the highest appetite for child porn.
According to Google trends, South Africans have searched for "child porn" 26 times this month, and the country ranks as the seventh highest globally for the amount of times that search term is typed in. The bulk of local searches emanate from Gauteng, followed by the Western Cape and then KwaZulu-Natal.
Globally, Trinidad and Tobago top the list for the most number of searches for child porn.
The epidemic is so acute in SA that Wikipedia says it has resulted in the continent having the highest rate of child sexual abuse globally at 34.4%.
South Africa is also seventh on Google's list for "baby porn", and tops the trends when it comes to searching for "pre-teen porn".
The FPB notes it is looking to ISPs to work with it to assist with the eradication of child pornography. "Our mandate is primarily to protect children from exposure to age-inappropriate scenes and adult experiences. We do not intercept nor do we have the mandate to do so. It is up to the ISPs and the public to live up to the good moral fibre of assisting in the protection of children in this regard."
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