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ISPA addresses concerns over child pornography
In a briefing to parliament's social development portfolio committee last week, the Film and Publication Board's legal counsel recommended that it should be made an offence for an Internet service provider not to remove child pornography from its network once it had been made aware of the existence of that material.
Responding to this recommendation, the Internet Service Providers' Association notes that South African ISPs are already co-operating fully with authorities in dealing with illegal content such as child pornography.
Currently, the notification procedure for handling illegal material is the presentation of a court order instructing the ISP to remove that content. Upon presentation of such an order, and assuming that it is technically feasible for the ISP to remove that content, illegal material is immediately removed.
ISPA believes that if the current court-order based system is replaced by a new notification procedure, this process must be clearly defined. ISPs could be open to legal action from customers if they remove customers' content without a clear legal instruction to do so.
While ISPA will continue to work with law enforcement in its battle against child pornography, the privacy rights of subscribers, as provided for in the Bill of Rights must be strictly protected. As such, the importance of clear and procedurally sound notification procedures must be a priority.
ISPs are also concerned that they may be held responsible for content that is not hosted on their network. While it is possible for ISPs to remove content that they host, they cannot control users' access to content hosted elsewhere.
ISPA does not support the idea of a register of ISPs, as suggested by the Film and Publications Board. Internet content can be hosted on a computer on any network. This might be an ISP's network but could also be a corporate network, a home user's network or the network of an academic institution. To effectively combat child pornography, notification procedures for illegal content should be applicable to any potential content host, and not just to ISPs.
ISPA is committed to fighting child pornography and is working closely with the Film and Publications Board to find technically sound ways of doing so. The Association is also working on a Code of Conduct for its members covering issues such as content hosting and consumer protection.
Prepared by: Ant Brooks, co-chair ISPA Regulatory Subcommittee
For further information: ant@ispa.org.za, Ph: +27 83 326 3933
