Making our youngsters responsible digital citizens

THE online space holds many dangers and pitfalls for young people.

Recently, a Sandton sex video that went viral was shared countless times on social media exposing young eyes to what may be deemed as pornography.

Yesterday, Safer Internet Day was commemorated in 140 countries across the world.

The Film and Publications Board (FPB), together with Google, hosted an event in Rustenburg for schoolchildren from the North West town to help them understand how to use the internet better and be aware of its dangers. They also launched Google’s child online safety programme, Be Internet Awesome, which was also unveiled in Nigeria and the Netherlands yesterday.

“Safer Internet Day is to appreciate the benefits that the internet has brought into our lives. We can all appreciate and understand the huge impact the internet has had.

“We use it to communicate, we use it to search for information, we use it to train. There are so many benefits but also there are some responsibilities that go with it,” said FPB acting chief executive Abongile Mashele.

She added that being responsible digital citizens meant that people needed to learn how to engage better on the internet without causing any harm to others.

“We should not bully each other in any way, we need to not engage in criminal activities and that starts with you before it becomes about someone else,” said Mashele.

Mmaletjema Poto, FPB’s child protection officer, said protecting children in the age of the internet was essential.

“My main role is to do analysis of child-sexual abuse material (known as child pornography).

“We assist SAPS with their cases and analyse for them and have a hotline that people can use to report suspected child pornography.”

Poto said in South Africa sexual child exploitation was rife.

“It’s one of the most overlooked forms of child-sexual abuse. When we talk about pornography people feel like it is something that is away from them because it is on the internet.

“But when we get our cases it is people who are in possession of it and from that they have collections from different countries.”

She added that child-sexual abuse starts in infancy where even babies are used in the exploitation.

“In our country there is a lot of it; we just don’t talk about it and therefore people don’t report it. People are often surprised when we tell them they can report on such.”

Poto said when they looked at cases of child pornography, it was not just on possession but on creation and distribution as well.

“A lot of people are guilty of distribution. In cases where a video or image is popular, people keep it and continue to share it and that’s a problem.”

Poto said the aim for FPB was to ultimately see the eradication of child-sexual abuse material.

“When people know that the action is wrong then they won’t do it. People must take accountability even if they did not create it,” added Poto.

Safer Internet Day is commemorated every second Tuesday of February.