Challenges of Enforcing Anti-cyber Bullying Laws on Teen Sexting in South Africa

Abstract

The protection of children from harmful online content is upheld in international and domestic legal instruments. In South Africa, children enjoy the right to privacy, freedom of expression and protection from exposure to abusive and exploitative materials when they go online. However, in recent years, many South African children have been involved in creating and distributing harmful and illegal messages through the Internet. This prompts the question of whether the South African legal framework is adequate to protect children and shield them from cyberbullying or sexting. This study re-examines the ability of South African anti-cyberbullying laws to protect children online. Cyberbullying takes many forms, and therefore, this study is confined to sexting—the participation in communicating nude pictures through mobile phones. This study is based on the purposive sampling of several well-known cases of sexting that occurred within the South African schooling environment. The findings of the study confirm the view that South African anti-cyberbullying laws are less effective in curbing children’s participation in sexting. In addition, children’s creativity with new age-technologies has tended to complicate and undermine efforts to protect the same children from the harms of sexting. The study concludes that many South African parents appear ill-equipped to teach their children to handle safe sexting and to protect these children from becoming victims of the frequently disastrous consequences of sexting, which may even include suicide.