Don't condemn technology

There is no point in hammering technology when the whole issue of child pornography is about human, or inhuman, behaviour. To effectively combat this heinous crime, the focus must be on social and legislative rather than only technological engineering.

Once again, the Department of Home Affairs and the Film and Publications Board have raised the depressing spectre of child pornography, and there is no wonder they feel as though they are among the few to be treading this mill.

Deputy home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba made the remark at this week's media briefing in Parliament when he said they run the risk of being seen as arch conservatives, "...relics of the apartheid past". He expressed the wish that more of civil society would take up the call to curb the exposure of children to pornography or being used in the production of such material.

When presenting the three reports compiled by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) on the issue, Gigaba also made the unfortunate comment that cellular phones are increasingly becoming the means to transmit pornography to children and for them to share it. So, he said, "...if cellphones could be done away with, then the problem is solved".

Analize van Wyk, the ANC MP who chaired the Ministerial Task Team looking into the issue, is opting for the traditional government method of levying another indirect tax on industry. She proposes that ISPs and wireless application service providers help fund a centre for the tracking of porn over the Internet and cellphones. This would be manned by the law enforcement agencies, such as centres found in the UK.

The HSRC reports make rather unsurprising recommendations to help curb child pornography. These include information packs in the sale of PCs and cellphones, increasing the training of the judiciary and law enforcement officers, and that ISPs be obliged to report clients who download and/or distribute child abuse images.

But as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said on one of his visits to this country: "Just because bad people use technology doesn't make the technology bad."

So instead of going down the traditional route of rounding up the usual suspects (ISPs and other companies that seem to be making a profit from technology) maybe some out of the box thinking is needed.

I find it odd that, in this country, where one needs a licence for almost everything, including telecommunications, any idiot can become a parent.

Paul Vecchiatto, Cape Town correspondent, ITWeb

Firstly, severely hamper children's ability to view pornography. Punishing the parents if their children are found deliberately accessing pornographic sites, or distributing it, should accomplish this.

I find it odd that, in this country, where one needs a licence for almost everything, including telecommunications, any idiot can become a parent. And since being a parent comes with obligations until the child reaches adulthood, parents must be accountable for their offspring's behaviour.

The excuse of "what can I do, this child is entitled to his or her privacy and can do whatever he/she likes", no longer applies.

Secondly, instead of asking ISPs and the like to cough up more money for another government project, rather use some of the R800 million sitting in the Universal Services Access Fund. Strictly speaking, this is not what the fund was set up for, but government has a way of tweaking the law to allow it to occur. It would certainly be a far more useful application than it just gathering interest in a bank account.

Finally, industry must play its part and ensure that if it is advertising pornographic (read adult) services, it must do so in appropriate places and this means not next to advertisements for games and other activities that children naturally go for.

During the briefing, Van Wyk said there are an estimated one million child pornographic pictures on the Internet, each of a different child. This may seem few when compared to the greater use of the Internet, but I say that even one is one too many.