Beware the dark side of social media

AS convenient and entertaining as social media can be, users have to be aware of the dark-side festering in the cracks of Facebook, Twitter and other social sites.

Revenge porn and cyber bullying is becoming an increasingly worrying issue among South African users who have fallen victim to it. Recently, a 14-year-old girl was ridiculed and shamed on social media after her ex-boyfriend leaked an explicit video of her. This video was believed to have been shared privately by her with the boyfriend, which he then made public after the break-up.

Overnight the teen became a trending topic in South Africa under the hashtag #sesuthu as people shared the video within their social media communities.

However, sharing a video of a minor in such a situation is a crime of possession of child sexual abuse material or child porn.

Cyber bullying is dangerous and can often lead the victim to harm themselves because of the constant attack they receive from online ‘trolls’. It is easy to sit behind a computer and ‘anonymously’ send abusive messages to the next person but never think about how this impacts the target.

Almost every day school fights and defaming videos circulate the net, publicly shaming all those involved. Not so long ago a video posted by a Capetonian teen caused a stir as she and her friends have been constantly bullying a girl via Whatsapp and phonecalls took it to a higher level and shared a video defaming their victim with death threats and vulgarity.

In the past there was no bill to protect or condemn cyber crimes in SA but a new bill, the proposed cybercrimes and cybersecurity bill is on the cards.

Cyber bullying can take different forms such as the latest waves of racist posts and explicit films. Many have fallen prey to the infamous screenshot that immortalises their most embarrassing or damning personal messages or pictures and broadcasting on the world wide web. A person can still be disciplined as a result of that content.

According to social media law expert, Emma Sadleir, if you wouldn’t want it on a billboard, don’t say it online.

Three crimes:

1. Criminal injuria, where somebody infringes you dignity in a very serious way.

2. Sexual offences:

• If you send or show pornography to someone under the age of 18 you are guilty of a criminal offence. Bearing in mind if you are over the age of 14, you can be the one committing the criminal offence.
• If a school,adult or church knows of a criminal offence/sexual offence they have to report it otherwise they are also guilty of the offence.
• Sexting: If you are under the age of 18 and you take a photo of yourself naked, you are creating child pornography.

3. Cyber bulling: One is allowed to get a protection order against someone who is stalking and harassing you.

Save