Parents have a right to kids’ phones

IF PARENTS buy their child a cellphone and subsequently pay for airtime, they have a legal right to access Mxit transcripts of their child’s conversations – including pictures.

This statement, made by Brigadier Vernon Stokes, the Durban Central police station commander, was met with nervous laughter and shocked expressions from the pupils of the George Campbell Technical High School this week.

As part of the Child Protection Week, the Durban Central police and the eThekwini Municipality’s Safer Cities Department were at the school to teach pupils about crime issues that affected them.

Police spokesman, Captain Khephu Ndlovu, said the pur- pose of the talk was to address safety. “Police members have a vital role in protecting children by reducing levels of crime,” he said.

“We need to make an extra effort to work with government and the community to keep our children safe.”

The officers addressed issues such as children who come from broken homes, child abuse, drug use and the dangers of social media, such as Facebook and Mxit.

“There are children coming to school hungry, from broken homes, and from families where they are the head of the household, and this is a challenge teachers face daily,” Stokes said.

“But children, no matter what their situation, should have a certain attitude when they go to school, and know there are people to help them.”

Stokes said child abuse was one of the biggest evils in our country. “I want to encourage children to report incidents of abuse to the police,” he said.

Marvin Qhobosheane, of the municipality’s Safer Cities Department, said although Child Protection Week was important, it was not only about keeping children safe, but also teaching children to take responsibility for themselves.

Referring to “social ills”, such as pornographic websites and magazines, he told the pupils that things that didn’t help them grow were not good for them. “We should rather be spending time on things that will make us better citizens of this country,” he said. THE eThekwini Municipality is advising residents to brace themselves for water restrictions next week as engineers shut down one of the main water pipes in order to carry out an upgrade.

During the shutdown, the city would be receiving less water by volume from the bulk water supplier.

The shutdown would affect northern areas – north of the uMngeni River up to Verulam – central area between the uMngeni River and uMlazi River as far west as the Pinetown/ Fields Hill area and southern area – uMlazi, eNsimbini and Folweni areas.

The city urged consumers to use water wisely by not washing cars, watering gardens, filling swimming pools or wasting water in any way.

Rather, the city said, con- sumers should shower instead of bathing, delaying doing the laundry, postpone any intensive water use activity and close the tap when brushing teeth.

This restriction is for 48 hours from 5am on June 12 to 5am on June 14.

The city said if the public reduces its daily consumption for this period, this planned shutdown will not have a noticeable impact.