The Film and Publications Board (FPB) is working towards getting access into the dark web space to prevent illegal activities including the child pornography trade.
This was mentioned when the Select Committee on Economic Development and Trade received a briefing, on Tuesday, from the FPB on harmful content brought by social media and other online platforms and measures to counter them. The FPB is a statutory online content regulator which exists to protect the public against harmful and prohibited content including content that incites violence and advocates hatred.
Between April and December 2024, the FPB has handled 18 cases referred by the South African Police Service (SAPS) for content analysis on child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Acting chief executive officer of FPB, Ephraim Tlhako, said they have analysed 178 411 content sites where they found 7461 CSAM.
Tlhako said that since January 2025, there are two ongoing cases with a combined total of 40 000 images found. There is also an ongoing case from 2024 with 137 415 images that the FPB is analysing. Since April 2024, the FPB received and investigated 20 complaints from the members of the public including non consensual sharing of intimate images commonly known as revenge porn.
Tlhako highlighted some of the challenges the FPB board faced including:
• Distribution of inappropriate content: Social media platforms are allowing their platforms to host/distribute content of an inappropriate manner
• Limited legislative provisions to effectively monitor and regulate social media platforms
• Manual and laborious analysis of child sexual abuse material with psychosocial impact on staff
• Limited online safety education and awareness programmes to educate parents, children, teachers and general members of the public due to budget constraints
• Limited human and financial resources to expand online safety programmes and enforce compliance
To counter these challenges Tlhako said the FPB has a dedicated unit that monitors social media activities and an internal process to refer non-compliant activities to enforcement and compliance units. Tlhako said they are working closely with the Department of Communications and Digital technologies to address the legislative gaps.
Tlhako said they were working with members of the Global Online Safety Regulators Network for the monitoring of online activities and to detect prohibited content.
“We also held raids at taxi ranks and hawkers selling DVDS. We found that the label on the DVD does not match the content. We also had online safety and public awareness programmes at schools. If a stranger comes to your door physically and asks for your child, you will be concerned and won't allow the person in. Likewise, parents must be aware of what their children are searching for. It is easy for children to unknowingly communicate with criminals online from across the globe. We also work with community platforms so that what is blocked on one platform is not allowed on another,” Thlako said.
Tlhako said the dark web space is a well-run syndicated operation but with the right technical capacity and resources it can be eradicated. Tlhako also touched on the mental trauma child protection officers endure after watching harmful material on a regular basis.
Committee member Nicolaas Pienaar said the weight and gravity of the matter must not be overlooked when it came to harm on children. He said the CSAM had far reaching consequences and must be rooted out. Pienaar raised his concern.
“Disinformation today becoming the truth tomorrow, this includes deep fake images and videos which look 100 percent original. How are we going to handle such issues?” Pienaar said.
He called for more regulations and penalties on social media companies that allow illegal and harmful content to be shared.
Committee member Meisie Kennedy was concerned about the amount of schools that the FPB can reach with its limited resources while another member Mpho Modise called for regulations to be passed speedily to deal with some of the issues to keep up with the rate of technological advancements.
Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Mondli Gungubele, said that the FPB manages a huge dynamic aspect of society which is evolving second by second at a high pace.
“The biggest challenge that this department has is that without healthy connectivity, without society having access to the internet in an affordable way, without society being trained to use the internet properly they have a society that is difficult to educate in the modern world. A lot of money needs to go to foundational infrastructure which is critical for the success of their work,” he said.