MXIT, SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES AND THE LAW

Several newspaper reports - Teen in Mxit rape ordeal (The Star, 6

August, 2010); Girl, 15, terrified of MXit stalker (The Star, 28 March
2009); KZN families shocked by the dangers of MXit, (Carvin Goldstone
and Se-Anne Rall, 20 October 2006); New teen porn shocker on MXit, (The
Citizen, 23 February 2009); Young Durban girls post lewd pics on MXit,
(The Independent, 28 February 2009); Teen, 13, sells pics of herself on
MXit, (Afrikaaner-Genocide-Archives, 25 February 2009); MXit linked to
missing teen, (Beeld, 28 May 2008); Lost girls in MXit drama: chat service
linked to disappearance, (The Star, 12 April 2008); MXit girl back home,
(The Star, 6 August 2009) and Fury over school sex lists, (Sunday Times
Extra, 7 November 2010) - raise questions not only about the failure of
chat room service providers, like MXit, to respond effectively and
appropriately to the provisions of the Films and Publications Act related to
the obligations of those who provide social networking and chat room
services but also about the failure of the Film and Publication Board to
ensure effective monitoring of compliance with the relevant provisions of
the Act.

There is little doubt that, as far as children and young people are
concerned, there is complete integration of online activities into their
lives. Children are using social networking, gaming, instant messaging
and photo-sharing facilities provided by the Internet and mobile cellular
phones with little or no distinction between online and offline activities,
thereby increasing their vulnerability to risks of victimisation by online
child predators. Social networking websites, like MXit, Facebook and
Myspace, which provide facilities to enable persons, in particular those
previously unacquainted with each other, to make online contact and
communicate with each other, using tools like blogs, profiles, e-mails and
photos, are attracting more and more children and young people.

Statistics from the Teen Internet Survey, conducted in 2007 by the

Washington-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children,
showed just how popular social networking sites are among children and
young people:

• 71% of adolescents have set up online profiles

• 69% of these adolescents get online personal messages from people

they do not know on a regular basis

• 64% of youth post photos or videos of themselves online, and

almost all do not really think about who might be viewing them

• 56% post information about where they live and nearly 10% posted
their cell phone numbers online, and
 • 19% of adolescents reported that they have been harassed or
bullied online, with girls more likely to be harassed or bullied than
boys.

Social networking sites and chat rooms have become the favourite
hunting grounds of paedophiles and child predators and most children are
naive to the risks posed by those seeking child-
victims. Children see chatting online as fun, totally unaware of the risks
they expose themselves to from online child predators. The problem is
that children see the online world as very different to the real world they
know, and are tempted into saying and doing things that they would not
dream of if they met someone face-to-face in the offline world. Children
are known to give out personal information, such as mobile numbers, and
pictures of themselves, to strangers they meet online but which they
would not do with a stranger offline.

Social networking sites are not what they seem to be. Recently, a
social networking site, which was, in fact, a child pornography website,
was broken up by US law enforcement. The Associated Press reported on
27 May 2010 that “Federal prosecutors.... are working with police in
several countries to investigate suspects in a child pornography ‘social
networking site’ that at one point had more than 1,000 members trading
explicit images. U.S. authorities announced Wednesday that they had
broken up the international online child porn site, saying more than 50
people had been arrested in more than 50 states since the 2008 start of
the investigation. They said they are also seeking the extradition of
several suspects from overseas, including the alleged ringleader, Delwyn
Savigar, who is serving a 14-year prison term in England for sexually
assaulting three underage girls and who created and ran a password-
protected website from which members could access collections of sexual
images, some including as many as a million files, share their fantasies
about having sex with children and give advice to each other about how
to build their collections and avoid getting caught. Assistant U.S. Attorney
Steven D. DeBrota said, ‘This was a social networking site, really.’.....The
group had about 1,000 members at its peak.....the investigation was kept
secret for so long to avoid tipping off suspects.....the government is
working with police in several countries, including France, Germany and
England, to investigate other suspects..... Investigators also believe the
group had members in Asia, Africa and South America.”

More recently, Australian police reported that an international child

pornography ring that operated on Facebook was brought down with the
support of the social networking site. The Sydney Morning Herald
newspaper reported on Friday 27 August 2010 that Facebook
management knew about the pornography on its website and had
deactivated accounts of people involved, but had not informed police.
Facebook and Australian Federal Police issued a joint statement in
response to the report saying the networking site had immediately taken
action once a police investigation began, and its assistance was "integral
to bringing down this international child pornography syndicate. Eleven
people have been charged in Australia, Britain and Canada in connection
with the syndicate, which involved people using Facebook to distribute
and view graphic sexual images.

Child predators have coined a term for their search for child-victims
in chat rooms – “chicken hawking”. A predator will enter a chat room to
look for a child-victim. He carefully observes the behaviour of those in the
chat room and identifies someone he believes to be a child. Typically the
predator will try to befriend the child by pretending initially to be of the
same age and with similar interests. After a few minutes of initial chat, he
will persuade the child to go off into a private chat room where just the
two of them will “talk”. Once in a private chat room, the predator will
seduce the victim into exchanging contact addresses, including mobile
telephone numbers. The child predator will seek to draw the child into his
web and may encourage the child to take pornographic photographs of
himself or herself, either alone or with friends. Eventually, after successful
“grooming”, the predator will seduce the child into a meeting in the real
world where the predator would sexually abuse the child – and sometimes
even murder the child to protect himself.

The tragic case of the tragic case of Ashleigh Hall is a chilling

reminder of the dark side of the Internet and confirms Richard Lowe’s
warning in his paper, A Dangerous Environment: “.....Internet is a
dangerous place for your children. Don’t even begin to believe that your
child is safe. There are more dangers than you can possibly imagine
waiting to lure children to their doom. You had better be aware of what’s
happening and take steps to shield them from danger.....if you don’t, your
child’s sanity and safety are at serious risk.” Ashleigh Hall, a 17-year-old
girl from County Durham in the UK, was contacted on Facebook by a
registered sex offender, Peter Chapman, posing as a teenage boy, for an
offline meeting. He then kidnapped, raped and murdered her. He was
subsequently arrested, convicted and jailed for 35 years.

Section 24C of the Films and Publications Act, No 65 of 1996,

introduced by the Films and Publications Amendment Act, No 3 of 2009, is
Parliament’s response to the increasing dangers from online child
predators through the rise in children’s connectivity to the Internet. What
was of concern to Parliament was evidence of the role of the Internet in
the facilitation of paedophilic acts.....not merely through the transfer of
child pornography, but by providing a supportive context and by changing
opportunities individuals might have for contact with children through
chat rooms, web sites and e-mail. Time, space, borders and distances
make no difference to who can communicate with whom.

Section 24C imposes clear obligations on those who provide and

operate social networking and chat room services which attract children.

In terms of section 24C(1)(a), a “child-oriented service” means a

contact service and includes a content service which is specifically
targeted at children. A “contact service” means any service intended to
enable people previously unacquainted with each other to make initial
contact and to communicate with each other and “content service” means
the provision of content or the exercise of editorial control over the
content conveyed via a communications network, as defined in the
Electronic Communications Act, No. 35 of 2005, to the public or sections
of the public.

It is clear, from the definition of “child-oriented service” that

section 24C applies to all social networking and chat room services
operating from within the Republic and not only to services specifically
targeting children. Given that registering as a user on a social networking
website, or chat room, with a fake profile is not a problem, it is not
surprising that Parliament did not restrict the application of section 24C to
services intended only for children.

Social networking and chat room facilities are favoured by online

child predators for “chicken hawking”. And they are well aware that
children, and especially young people, do not restrict their online activities
only to social networking sites and chat rooms that are designed for
children.

Section 24C(2) of the Films and Publications Act, No 65 of 1996,

imposes five obligations on all those who provide and operate social
networking and chat room services within the Republic.

Subsection(a) requires social networking and chat room operators

to “moderate such services and take such reasonable steps as are
necessary to ensure that such services are not being used by any person
for the purpose of the commission of any offence against children”.

Most social networking sites and chat rooms do have moderators

but, unfortunately, not specifically for the purpose of ensuring that their
services are not abused by child predators. Moderating such services for
the purpose of protecting children requires moderators who are able to
identify potential child predators through their behaviour, such as when a
subscriber invites a child into a private chat room.

A “reasonable step” is for social networking and chat room

operators to ensure that moderators are familiar with predatory behaviour
and “paedophile lexicon” – the language of paedophiles – to be able to
distinguish between innocent chats amongst children or children and
adults, and the predatory language of paedophiles and child predators
who masquerade as children to gain the trust of their targeted child-
victims. Subscribers who flatter a child into entering a private chat room,
or ask a child what problems they have and identify with those problems
to establish a bond or ask about the location of a child’s computer and
whether the child’s parents or other adults are in the room or use
language suggesting real love or, obviously, use sexually-suggestive
words and phrases should be identified as potential child predators and
be blocked and locked out from that chat room.

Rob Marcus, the UK-based Director of Chat Moderators, has made a

number of suggestions which, if followed, will ensure compliance with
subsection (a):

“Registration: A robust registration process can work to deter potential

paedophiles from using the sites, and as a last resort can act as a means
of catching them after the event. An additional part of the registration
procedure can involve charging a nominal fee and ensuring each person
pays with a credit card so that they are identifiable.

“Users will also have to provide a valid email address by responding to

a registration email. Were they banned for any reason, the email address
and user name will be flagged as invalid.

“All providers should have both child-orientated and non-child

orientated chat rooms where the designs are different so that parents can
clearly see whether they are in a child-friendly room.

“Don’t allow private chat functions in child friendly chat rooms – this
is where it is easiest for paedophiles to operate without being seen by
other users.

“Human moderation should be compulsory to an extent and have

minimum requirements based on an average number of users. Levels of
moderation should be clearly displayed for parents. It may be best to
outsource a moderation company as many providers underestimate the
time, effort and resource this takes in order to moderate effectively.”

“It is important”, Rob Marcus concludes, “for all chat rooms to act
responsibly and take adequate measures to ensure that children are not
at risk while visiting their website...... In many instances the best way
to arrive at a solution is to involve people with specialist
knowledge who can discuss the best way forward and ensure that
certain measures are being put in place by the online industry.”

It is important to note that subsection (a) refers to the “commission

of any offence against children” and not only to offences set out in the
Films and Publications Act. For instance, the use of chat rooms to meet
children for the purpose of grooming them into accepting
intergenerational sex and luring them into offline meetings for sexual
abuse is a computer-facilitated offence from which children must be
protected. Offences against children and the mentally-disabled set out in
the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act,
No 32 of 2007 is also relevant in so far as subsection (a) is concerned.
 Subsection (b) requires all social networking and chat room
operators to “prominently display reasonable safety messages in a
language that will be clearly understood by children, on all
advertisements for a child-oriented service, as well as in the medium used
to access such child-oriented service including, where appropriate, chat-
room safety messages for chat-rooms or similar contact services.”

What is important in subsection (b) is not only the display of safety

messages “in a language that will be clearly understood by children” but
also that such messages should be displayed in a way and in places where
children will not be able to avoid them. The safety message should be the
first thing a child will see when entering a social networking site or chat
room.

Subsection (c) should, in fact, be read with subsection (b) in the

sense that the provision of an onsite reporting mechanism “to enable
children to report suspicious behaviour by any person in a chat-room to
the service or access provider” should be part of the safety message. It is
important to ensure that any reporting mechanism is child-user friendly
and onsite.

Subsection (d), which echoes section 24B(2), imposes an obligation

on all social networking and chat room operators to “report details of any
information regarding behaviour which is indicative of the commission of
any offence by any person against any child to a police official of the
South African Police Service.”

There is, however, a slight difference between section 24B(2) and

subsection (d): section 24B(2) provides for the reporting of knowledge or
suspicion of any section 24B(1) offence i.e. offences related to child
pornography, whereas subsection (d) refers to “behaviour which is
indicative of the commission of any offence by any person against any
child”. For instance, the sexual grooming of a child is an offence in terms
of section 18 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters)
Amendment Act, No 32 of 2007 but not in terms of section 24B(1). The
nature of what must be reported in terms of subsection (d) is much wider
than what is required to be reported in terms of section 24B(2) – which
means that operators of social networking and chat room services must
familiarise themselves with all offences against children and not only the
offences set out in the Films and Publications Act, No 65 of 1996.

Subsection (e) is not a “discretionary” obligation, as may be

interpreted by the expression “where technically feasible”. This
subsection imposes an obligation on social networking and chat room
operators to provide, “where technically feasible.....children and their
parents or primary care-givers with information concerning software or
other tools which can be used to filter or block access to content services
and contact services, where allowing a child to access such content
service or contact service would constitute an offence under this Act or
which may be considered unsuitable for children, as well as information
concerning the use of such software or other tools.”

The expression “where technically feasible” should not be

interpreted as meaning where the technology makes it feasible to do so
but as meaning where it is technically feasible either as part of the safety
message required in terms of subsection (b) or where the social
networking or chat room operators have contact details of children who
are subscribers to their services or contact details of parents whose
children are subscribers to such services. Including such information as is
required under subsection (e) as part of the safety message would,
however, satisfy the requirements of subsection (e).

In terms of section 24C(3), failure to meet any of the obligations set

out in section 24C(2) will expose social networking and chat room
operators to criminal liability consequences. In addition, section 18(1)(d)
of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment
Act, No 32 of 2007 provides that any person who arranges or facilitates a
meeting or communication between a person and a child by any means
from, to or in any part of the world, with the intention that such person
will perform a sexual act with that child, will be guilty of the offence of
promoting the sexual grooming of a child. Providing a service that will
enable online predators to chat in private with child-victims, could,
arguably, amount to facilitating communication between adults and
children for the purpose of sexual grooming.

It is not too farfetched to suggest that there could also be civil

liability consequences – restitution or reparations for the pain and
suffering endured by child-victims, and their families, from abuse by
online predators through failure to meet the legal obligations imposed
24C(2). In the context of restorative justice, restitution to the victim by
the offender is as appropriate as retribution by the state against the
offender. Restorative justice is, after all, also concerned with responding
appropriately and adequately to the material, financial, emotional and
social needs of the victim of a crime. Children, and not the state, are the
victims of sexual abuse and exploitation by child predators.

US Code 18 U.S.C. § 2259(a), which mandates full restitution for

children who are the victims of sexual exploitation and other abuse
certainly supports the argument that South African social networking and
chat room operators should suffer civil consequences, in addition to any
penal sanctions, for failure to meet the obligations set out in section
24C(2). US legislators and courts have long recognized that children
depicted in child pornography are harmed not only by the sexual abuse
suffered by them in the creation of the images, but also by the
subsequent distribution, possession, and viewing of the images of their
abuse. They have also recognized the importance of awarding restitution
to victims who are harmed by such crimes to help make them whole, and
to aid in their recovery.

Restitution to child-victims by offenders who fail to meet legal

obligations aimed at the protection of children from sexual abuse and
exploitation is certainly within the spirit of the Minister for Justice and
Constitutional Development’s Foreword to the Service Charter for Victims
of Crime in South Africa: “Since 1994, and in keeping with the cultivation
of a human rights culture, the focus has gradually shifted from an
adversarial and retributive criminal justice system to that of Restorative
Justice. Central to the concept of Restorative Justice is the recognition of
crime as more than an offence against the state, but also as an injury or
wrong done to another person. This is in line with the National Crime
Prevention Strategy’s victim-centred vision for the criminal justice system.
The ultimate goal is victim empowerment through meeting victims’
needs, be they material or emotional.”

These are extraordinary times for our children because of the

pervasiveness of information technology on their lives. In such times it is
not enough to follow the road. It is necessary to know where it leads, and,
if it leads to the traumatisation of our children, to follow another…and not
to proceed with the utmost rapidity in the wrong direction. When we are
confronted with a crisis, we cannot behave as though nothing very
important is involved, as if it did not matter if we continued doing what we
have been doing all along - with just a little more energy. We have to
consider whether what we have done is wise, and, if it is not, to alter it.
Our children should not expect anything less of us, for these are crimes
against them for which we, as a society, must bear full responsibility.

Iyavar Chetty