Online safety education should be complusory
The legal implications of violence, bullying, sharing content and ‘trial by social media’
THE recent surge in violence among children and youth across South Africa can be linked to their exposure to inappropriate content on social media.
Posts on various social media platforms include, and depict, violence, murder, suicide, bullying, sexual assault, pornography and many other forms of unsuitable content. Such content is easily accessible to the youth and filters through security settings, firewalls and filter systems – and it can be made available through hacking.
The bottom line is that if hackers who are extremely intelligent and technologically advanced want certain content to be leaked, they find various ways to achieve this goal. The impending result is that vulnerable and easily influenced young minds, who do not have the required level of emotional maturity to process and deal with the content they are exposed to, formulate views on these issues which are not in accordance with society’s accepted moral and legal norms.
We are, therefore, now beginning to see frequent posts of violent attacks on social media, such as in the murder case of Thoriso Themane; posts of violent outbursts and assault, such as the Sans Souci Girls’ High School incident; and countless videos of bullying occurring between school pupils and youth on and off school grounds.
As seen in the case of Thoriso Themane, most people are of the view that sharing these videos and this content on various social media platforms is for the greater good. The public at large seems to be blissfully unaware of the legal implications of sharing content and videos especially in relation to the identities of children.
Irrespective of whether a child – by legal definition “a person under the age of 18 years” – is a victim or perpetrator of a crime, that child’s identity is protected in terms of the law. The young girl in the Sans Souci incident was clearly identifiable in the video that went viral. Not only are the identities of the alleged perpetrators in the Themane case revealed in the video, screenshots of one of the alleged perpetrators have been doing the rounds online.
This practice places the child in direct harm as it exposes his or her identity and the child is easily identifiable. Details such as the school the child attends and his or her home address have now become easily accessible as well. These children are now subjected to trial by social media before they have been tried by a court of law. There are legal implications for the sharers of this content. The child whose identity has been revealed or the State can take legal action against them in terms of section 154 of the Criminal Procedure Act, which states that, “No person shall publish in any manner whatever information which reveals or may reveal the identity of the accused under the age of 18 years or of a witness at criminal proceedings who is under the age of 18 years”.
The child could also pursue action in terms of defamation of character or crimen injuria. In the Themane case, judgment as to guilt has not yet been delivered by a court of law. The public cannot pronounce judgment before trial at court.
Children can, of course, be held legally liable for their actions. In South Africa, children from the age of 7 can be sued in the name of their parent or legal guardian. Children from the age of 11 to 18 are deemed to be legally liable for their actions and can be sued for defamation civilly and for assault or crimen injuria criminally.
Children from 11 to 14 have criminal capacity and the onus to prove criminal capacity on the part of the child accused of having committed a crime rests with the State. Children above 14 years of age have criminal capacity unless otherwise proven by an accused child.
Regrettably, there seems to be a big absence of informed parenting or simply ignorance in South African homes with regards to the effects of social media. Most parents do not know even know what cyberbullying, sexting, online grooming, cyberstalking or catfishing is. Children and the youth, in particular, are not monitored online nor are they taught online safety. Instead, they are given the latest smart devices and mobile phones by their parents or guardians and are left to explore the internet and social media at their leisure. The result, of course, is high exposure to inappropriate and violent online content, children becoming vulnerable to heinous acts or crimes against them, and furthermore, children committing social media offences.
To a large extent, most adults are ignorant of the legal implications of their own actions on social media. Statistics and experience have shown that 95% of parents are completely in the dark about social media dangers facing their children, age limits of the various platforms, legal implications of their children’s actions on social media, and online safety.
Schools all over South Africa are dealing with a high rate of cyberbullying on and off school grounds. Schools need to have proper social media policies in place to deal with these incidents and take proper disciplinary action in these cases, especially in cases where the cyberbullying leads to physical violence.
Social media policies in schools are no longer an option but a necessity. These policies need to deal with all aspects of social media, use of devices or mobile phones, disciplinary action for social media offences etc.
So how do we stop the cycle of violence being perpetuated, and protect our children/youth as well?
The answer is education. Online safety education is of paramount importance in educating both children and the youth, teachers, parents and caregivers about social media. It is the duty of both parents and schools to ensure children are apprised of the dangers of social media. In my view, online safety education should be compulsory.
Parents ought to take an active role in monitoring their children’s online activity. Parents need to become internet-savvy. Parental-control software must be installed on devices.
The example I like to give to parents to consider is – You wouldn’t drop off your child at a park and leave them there for a few hours on their own before returning to pick them up, so why do you allow your kids to be online without watching them or monitoring their activity?
Smart devices and phones should be given to children only after consideration of their age and emotional maturity, if proper safety settings and software have been installed on such devices and parents can monitor activity online. Schools allowing mobile phones at school or the use of devices in education need to ensure that the proper safety software is installed.
In respect of violence, we as South Africans need to go back to basics and teach our children right from wrong. Children should not be left to make up their own opinions about morals, ethics and the law. Adults and parents should be modelling the correct behaviour to our children. Their futures depend on it.
Parents are not alone in this task; society, government, leaders, the private sector and professionals all have a part to play in shaping the future of our children and youth. We all need to work together to properly educate and inform our children and youth on social media and its many implications on their future.