ISPA Calls for Local Debate Around Global Issue of Age Verification

3 February 2025

ISPA, South Africa’s official internet Industry Representative Body, is calling for local debate around the growing global issue of age verification on the internet.

With a myriad of online threats being faced by minors and vulnerable persons that include sexual predators, terrorist actors and illegal online marketplaces, this topic is wider than most of us realise. Engagement, therefore, is necessary to properly define these threats before combating them.

“From the days when freedom of expression arguments ruled virtually unopposed, there is now general consensus amongst responsible people and organisations that there should be some type of external mechanism to ensure young people are not exposed to age inappropriate material,” said Dominic Cull, ISPA regulatory advisor.

This year will see an increased roll out of age verification measures intended to make it harder for children to access adult content. A number of states in the United States have already enacted age-verification obligations while there are initiatives underway in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, the European Union and elsewhere.

“On the surface this looks like a simple issue, but it is both legally and technically complex. The principal argument in favour is the need to wind back the clock and protect children and other vulnerable groups from adult content online and adult experiences on social media platforms. Opponents, however, regard age verification systems as surveillance systems which threaten privacy and personal security rights and which are ineffective, easy to abuse and simple to circumvent.

A balance needs to be found within the South African framework of Constitutional rights and laws such as the Protection of Personal Information Act. The existing South African legal and legislative environment governing online harms is not fit for this purpose. The issue furthermore cannot be addressed by the country’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs) alone who are, in fact, not content providers but ‘mere conduits’ in law.

“While no single internet player is solely responsible for age verification on the internet; platforms, ISPs, government, schools, children and parents are all integral to the overall ecosystem and therefore jointly responsible for ensuring minors only access age appropriate material,” adds Cull.

ISPA has been a proactive force for good on the local web for many years. Its takedown notice (TDN) procedure sees about 3 to 4 ‘problematic’ websites being removed from domestically hosted content every week. Although most TDNs are related to intellectual property issues, many are indeed related to inappropriate content. ISPA has also run online safety campaigns targeting parents.

While the South African Law Reform Commission had undertaken an initial deep dive into children and access to pornography online, the Film and Publication Board (FPB) remains the default age appropriate content custodian. Much admirable advocacy work has been done by the FPB in schools and in the broader community. However, the country must now begin to discuss the nuts and bolts of specific mechanisms to protect vulnerable groups with international developments top of mind.

“It’s common cause that access to internet content needs to be restricted based on the user’s age. ISPA looks forward to engaging with other responsible internet industry stakeholders on how to address this,” concluded Cull.

Founded in 1996, ISPA is the only internet Industry Representative Body (IRB) officially recognised by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT). ISPA advocates for an open, free, and competitive internet landscape.