Feature: South Africa anti-child pornography campaign to reduce teenager pregnancy

Feature: South Africa anti-child pornography campaign to reduceteenager pregnancy

By Ntandoyenkosi Ncube

JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- South Africa is struggling toend teenager pregnancy rate. Early sex among school students isrampant at schools and is robbing the country of its best learners.

The South Africa Film and Publication Board (FPB) believe this ismainly because of early exposure to pornographic images throughinternet and films and lack of cyber safety lessons at schools.

Waging a war to reduce and aiming to end early sex at schools,FPB Thursday launched a new anti-child pornography campaign callingthe department of education to incorporate for cyber safety in theschool curriculum as part of Life Orientation lessons.

Cybersafety is the teaching of safe and responsible use ofInformation and Communication Technologies (ICT). The campaign whichleads government's anti-child pornography initiative is called ?Backto School?, has been welcomed by students, teachers and parents.

"The Internet and social media networks play a key role in theway young people communicate. And, due to their immediacy andanonymity, they offer fantastic opportunities for self-expression,which can also be perilous," FPB chief executive officer YoliswaMakhasi said during the campaign launch.

The launch event that will be followed by several other schoolvisits around the country was at Jules High School in Gauteng, thescene of last year's notorious sex scandal involving three children.The incident highlighted the crisis South Africa faces in mattersrelating to child pornography.

Videos of sex acts by three pupils, a 15-year-old girl and twoboys aged 14 and 16, were widely distributed via cell phones and theInternet during the weeks that followed.

The campaign seeks to educate children, parents and care-giversdangers and risks to children associated to exposure to childpornography and involved in the creation, possession anddistribution of pornographic materials.

"That's why, more than ever before, we need to encourage parentsand other care-givers to play an active role in children's digitallives. We believe that by including cyber safety in the curriculum,our children will be given the skills they need to avoid the perilsof the Internet," Makhasi said.

According to FPB Research Unit?s study entitled: ?Internet Usageand the exposure of Pornography to learners in South AfricanSchools?, around two thirds of children aged 13-17 had seenpornographic images on DVD/video or the Internet. 62 percent saidthey accidentally come across pornographic images or websites whensurfing the web.

"The presence of internet and cellphone is being abused by manyyoung students and this is destroying them because they spent timewatch addictive materials like pornography than doing school work,?Ernest Sithole head of Life Orientation lessons at DedangendlaleHigh School in Soweto told Xinhua. ?Students watch pornographybehind desks during lessons,? he said.

FPB is a government entity under the department of Home Affairsmandated to protect children from exposure to disturbing and harmfulmaterial and from premature exposure to adult material and to renderthe use of children in and exposure of children to pornography apunishable offence.

A study by FPB into non-contact sexual abuse of children between10-15 years via the Internet and cell phones found that 22 percentof children had seen sexual content or nudity on the Internet thathad upset them or made them feel uncomfortable.

?As a representative of parents i suggest that the governmentmust prohibit learners to carry cellphones to school and principalsmust restrict them to go to computer labs frequently and withoutspecific reasons,? Sapebuso Primary school in Soweto, SchoolGoverning Board (SGB) chairperson Experience Mbele told Xinhua.

The FPB campaign targets schools in an effort to educate childrenabout responsible use of technology platforms as well as educateparents about the dangers related to unmonitored use of cell-phonesand the internet.

According to Makhasi Back to School campaign also seeks to createawareness amongst learners, parents and teachers about cyber-safety, in particular, the dangers of social networks as well as theserious legal consequences people face who create, send, receive orstore pornographic material involving children.

Makhasi said it is common knowledge that despite last year?scases children across the country are involved in the distributionof child pornographic images and to a greater extent, these areimages created by children themselves within schools andcommunities.

"We're aware of a rising incidence of children recording illicitvideos using cell phones and using the Internet to distribute them.Our intention, by holding this campaign in schools, will be to warnchildren of the legal consequences of their actions and encouragecare-givers to do their bit to ensure children are kept safe frompornography," Makhasi said.

The Film and Publication Act prescribed a maximum prison sentenceof 10 years for offences relating to creation, possession,distribution, importation and broadcasting of Child Pornography.