Monday 19 October, 2015 - 10:49
Communications Minister, Faith Muthambi, says that parents need government’s help in protecting children against online abuse.
Speaking at the Film and Publication Board’s (FPB) Media Content Classification and Online Protection Conference in Johannesburg, Muthambi said that most of the time, parents are not even aware of their children’s online activity.
Wednesday 7 October, 2015 - 10:18
Monday 5 October, 2015 - 13:32
South Africa is almost dead last among 140 countries in terms of its maths and science education, according to this year's World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness report.
Last year's report also put the country last out of 148 countries and the report for 2015/16 painted a dismal picture, with South Africa placed at 138 out of 140 countries.
The only two countries ranked lower were Egypt and Paraguay and in terms of Internet access in schools, South Africa was 119 out of 140.
Thursday 17 September, 2015 - 10:11
As a researcher selected to participate in the gender and Internet governance exchange, what quickly became clear was the near absence of a gender perspective in Internet governance forums. The lack of this perspective is likely affect outcomes and recommendations around content, access and human rights online. The following talking points highlight work that has been done by the Association for Progressive Communications on gender and Internet governance issues.
Tuesday 8 September, 2015 - 10:42
The information society which encompasses information and communication technologies, including Internet, medias, broadcasting and postal services, represents one the most vibrant social and economic activities of this century.
It is against this backdrop among others that, African ministers of communication and information technologies gathering in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in their first ordinary session of the Specialised Technical Committee on Communication and ICT (STC-1 CICT) to discuss the significant strides and innovation in societal transformations in the last decade.
Thursday 20 August, 2015 - 10:30
Cabinet has approved the submission of the Films and Publications Amendment Bill which is guided by policy that has been criticised for seeking to curb internet freedoms.
A cabinet statement says the bill seeks to amend the Films and Publications Act of 1996 by adapting it to technological advances.
These changes include catering for online and social media platforms “in order to protect children from being exposed to disturbing and harmful media content in all platforms (physical and online).”
Wednesday 5 August, 2015 - 11:05
In September 2009, Bell Labs set a data transmission speed record at 100 petabits per second, equivalent to 100 billion megabits per second able to transmit 400 DVDs worth of data per second.
According to estimates by the international research firm, Gartner, “By 2020, there will be 25 billion of smart devices, transmitting tiny amounts of data to us, to the cloud and to each other.”
Tuesday 21 July, 2015 - 15:01
The Right2Know Campaign has vowed to step up its campaign against the Film and Publication Board’s draft Online Regulation Policy, while the Democratic Alliance demanded that both Communications Minister, Faith Muthambi, and the board appear before Parliament to respond to the outcry over the document.
R2Kb spokesperson, Busi Mtabane, points out that, “Nobody should be subject to the draconian censorship regime that the FPB envisions.”
Mtabane says the R2K can take encouragement from the huge public outcry against the regulations over the past few months.
Tuesday 7 July, 2015 - 8:48
South Africa is forecast to see a massive jump in Internet traffic as more people switch to smartphones and other smart devices.
According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index 2015, which predicts that there will be 27 million Internet users in the country by 2019, up from just 15 million in 2014.
Cisco says that a significant percentage of that growth will centre on Internet video consumption, with South Africans expected to download 43 billion minutes of video content by 2019.
Tuesday 7 July, 2015 - 8:45
Subscribers will be able to access online services such as, Facebook, news, health and educational information, through the company’s partnership with Facebook and Internet-dot-org.
The latter is an initiative by Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, to provide affordable Internet access to millions of people in developing countries and it is a partnership between Facebook and six companies to help connect the world.
