The fifth world summit on media and children (5WSCM) has highlighted the need for government and the industry to better protect the rights of children in the media without limiting the opportunities for education and access to information the media can provide for them.
The summit, held this week in Sandton, is the first of its kind to be held in Africa. The summit’s theme was ‘Media as a tool for global peaceâ€, and it focused on a range of issues such as how violence in the media affects children; health awareness; and HIV/Aids programming.
The gathering is also the first such summit to look at policy and regulatory frameworks that concern children in the media, says Petronella Linders of the department of communications.
‘In South Africa, we have regulations and a code for broadcasters, but [the country] is very silent when it comes to children in the media,†she says.
As technology develops, the risk of children accessing sexually explicit and violent material increases exponentially. Internet- and web-enabled cellphones are already making it harder to monitor what types of media content children are exposed to.
William Bird, director of the Media Monitoring Project, says that in the past parents could stop a child watching inappropriate programmes on TV, but with the advent of internet-enabled phones, it is becoming increasingly difficult to regulate what material children are exposed to and how they engage with it. It is also very important that children are given the tools to understand the implications of what they are seeing on TV or the Internet. They need to understand that images of child pornography, for example, are illegal, says Bird.
He argues that cellphone operators need to do more to regulate harmful material accessed through cellphones. Mobile companies must be compelled to disseminate mobile literacy programmes, as so many children have access to cellular phones.
Zolisa Masiza, councillor for the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), one of the sponsors of the summit, says that while people are concerned that the media makes it possible for children to be exposed to graphic material, it is important that South African children are made literate in information and communication technology.
‘What we are hoping to achieve is to get children to understand what technology can do, in terms of things like helping with school work,†says Masiza.
A children’s summit ran concurrently with the 5WSCM, with 300 young delegates attending from all over the world. It included workshops on radio, TV, digital production, story-telling and blogging.
‘From Icasa’s side, it was the first time that it was us consulting with children, to hear what their views are,†says Masiza.
Children’s participation in the media-content produced for them, as well as how they are portrayed in the media, were other issues the summit brought to the fore.
Linders says children at the summit called for more children’s programming on radio. She added that government is creating strategies for community radio stations to provide more children’s content.
Delegates said it was crucial that children not only participate in presenting or hosting children’s programmes but that they are involved in the entire production process.
Levern Engel, head of production company Ochre moving pictures, says: ‘There is greater awareness that, as experienced film-makers, we don’t make programmes for kids, kids make programmes for kids.â€
