Pupils use tablets from government to access porn

MPUMALANGA education authorities have found themselves in a tight corner following complaints that Grade 12 pupils were using government-issued tablet devices to access pornography.

The tablets are part of the provincial government’s R500 million e-learning programme launched in April this year by Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-tsipane and Education MEC Bonakele Majuba.

At the time, Mtshweni-tsipane said the launch included the delivery of

6 700 laptops for teachers and 55 000 tablets for learners aimed at meeting the challenges of a technologically advancing society.

She added that the tablets were preloaded with software and e-content and data ready for offline use.

Independent Media interviewed pupils from Masana Secondary School in Bushbuckridge, who admitted using the gadgets to access pornography.

Earlier in the week, the department identified the school as one of the offenders, and planned a visit to address the matter with management and the school governing body.

“Most learners here own smartphones that they’ve always used for whatever they want, specifically social media. It’s not like this is something new. We’ve been watching porn way before the tablets were given to us. Right now we just take advantage of the bigger gadgets,” said one pupil, who can’t be named as she is a minor.

The learner said the data packages they receive from the department on a monthly basis were useless.

“We only get 1GB a month. That’s nothing. You can’t even watch a Netflix series with that. That’s why some girls at school prefer to date older guys who can afford to buy them up to 60GB in monthly data. Others are lucky that their parents have installed wi-fi at their homes,” she said.

A male pupil who spoke on condition of anonymity, said porn was “not a big deal”.

“Yes, we watch porn clips now and then when a teacher misses a class, but that’s not our main interest. We enjoy watching animé and playing games on these free tablets. Some have apps to design posters for house parties.”

A parent living in Dwarsloop said she caught her daughter surfing “shocking sites”. “These children will put you in the hospital. When I discovered my daughter had visited a porn site, she denied everything. She said she entered a search for biblehub, but something else came up. They call them pop-ups. I don’t know what that means,” said the parent, who called on the department to block porn sites on the gadgets.

University of Mpumalanga senior lecturer in the department of public administration, Dr John Molepo, agreed that the department should simply block the sites.