The South African Human Rights Commission has said the country's laws are out of date and leave children exposed to online harms, recommending reforms to make platforms safer by design, Daily Maverick reports.
Presenting the commission's report on children's privacy and safety online, commissioner Nomahlubi Khwinana said the question was no longer whether children should be online but whether those responsible were doing enough to protect them. The report found that laws such as the Protection of Personal Information Act and the Cybercrimes Act do not deal with addictive algorithmic feeds, default data-sharing settings or age checks at sign-up.
The report drew on a conference held in Johannesburg in March, which included government departments, UN agencies, tech firms and children. A draft government white paper on online safety was published for comment in 2025, but no timetable for it has been given.
Source: Daily Maverick
