|
NEW
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
LAWS - 2004
Government clamps down on child pornography
September 12
2004 at 11:11AM
By Douglas Carew
Child pornography becomes one of the most serious crimes in South Africa from
next week.
Perpetrators will face prison terms of up to 30 years.
In a series of hard-hitting amendments to the Film and Publications Act:
· The maximum jail term for producing, distributing and possessing
child pornography has been raised from five to 30 years;
· Internet service providers will face criminal prosecution if
they fail to block access to child pornography sites after
members of the public or the police have informed them of their
existence;
· People who repair
computers will be held criminally liable if they do not report
clients whose computer hard drives contain child porn, and
so will photography shops that fail to report child pornography
on films sent in for developing and printing.
The amendments will be signed into law by President Thabo Mbeki next week,
two years after Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, the minister of home affairs, who
was then a deputy minister, promised in an August 2002 interview with Independent
Newspapers to crack down on child pornographers.
Mapisa-Nqakula's department is responsible for enforcing the Film and Publications
Act, which governs child pornography. The body set up to administer the act
is the Film and Publications Board, which is headed by Iyavar Chetty, the acting
chief executive.
Chetty said the production, possession and distribution of child pornography
would now be three separate offences. "The courts will now be able to
sentence per count, rather than treat production, possession and distribution
as one offence."
With the maximum sentence for contravening the act increased to 10 years, this
meant that theoretically a child pornographer who produced, possessed and distributed
banned material could be sent to jail for 30 years instead of the previous
maximum sentence of five years.
Internet service providers would have to register with the board and co-operate
in blocking access to child pornography on the internet. "When they are
advised to do so by the police or if they have knowledge of child porn sites
they must take action," Chetty said.
He stressed that this did not mean that internet service providers would be
monitoring their clients' surfing habits, but once they got information about
a child porn site they had an obligation to act by blocking access to that
site.
"It is not a Big Brother thing of checking up on what you are surfing."
Another addition to the act is that South African citizens who commit child
pornography-related offences in other countries can be prosecuted when they
return home.
Members of the public who are aware of child pornography activities could be
held criminally liable if they do not report those activities to the police.
Chetty said the act's definition of child pornography had also been redefined
as part of the amendments. "Previously the definition did not include
a ban on images of the anal area. It stopped at the genitals. But we know that
paedophiles are also interested in the anal area of children."
Chetty also reminded the public that the only people allowed to possess child
pornography were those doing bona fide research, and they had to get permission
from the Film and Publications Board.
This article was originally published on page 1 of Sunday Independent on
September 12, 2004
|
