Online Safety Is Not a Kid's Job, South Africa Says

On Sunday, 4 October 2026, South Africa's justice minister told a hall of student mock lawyers what most teenagers already know but few governments say out loud: keeping kids' online safety intact is not kids' job. Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi argued that protecting young people in digital spaces is the state's constitutional duty, not a chore to hand to children, lone parents, or school rulebooks. Her message reframes online safety as a shared responsibility — one where governments, platforms, and schools do the heavy lifting.

Online Safety Is a State Duty, Not a Teenager's Task

Kubayi spoke at the national Moot Court Competition final, held at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg and marking its fifteenth year. The competition is run with the Department of Basic Education and the national human rights commission. This year's theme was "Digital Rights, Online Safety" and the "Best Interests of the Child," and finalists argued a fictional school-discipline case — Tshepiso Mokoena & Sibusiso Zulu v Platinum Valley High School — testing where freedom of expression ends and a school's authority over learners' online lives begins.

According to reporting by The Bulrushes, she told the finalists: "Online safety is not something we can leave to children to manage alone." She added: "It is our job, and the work you do here helps us do it better." She anchored the claim in Section 7(2) of the Constitution, which obliges the state to respect, protect, promote, and fulfil people's rights — including, she argued, in the digital environment. She then posed the central tension of the online safety debate: "How do we balance a child's right to freedom of expression and access to digital resources with the imperative duty to protect learners from online harms?" And: "Where does authority end, and fundamental rights begin?"

The stakes behind the speech are concrete. A provincial health briefing has cited research finding that 95 percent of learners in grades four through eleven have regular internet access, 62 percent own a phone or tablet by age ten, and 83 percent have at least one social media account by age twelve. When nearly every learner is on the internet before their teens, "just be careful online" stops being useful advice — it becomes an abdication.

Bans Versus Accountability: A Different Route for Online Safety

South Africa's stance stands out against a global drift toward hard bans. Gabon has enforced age verification for social media users under sixteen. Rwanda is drafting legislation to restrict access for under-sixteens. Australia has become the international reference point for keeping children off social platforms. Zimbabwe announced it was formulating a ban for under-eighteens. Against that backdrop, South Africa has refused the blanket-ban route.

Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi told parliament there was no conclusive evidence that a blanket ban would keep young people off the platforms, and said the focus should instead be on platforms strengthening their own protections. As reported by Biometric Update, the government's line is platform accountability, not age gates. Malatsi had already urged platforms to build stronger internal mechanisms for handling harmful content at the country's Social Media Summit in July. The counterpoint is honest about enforcement: with major platforms operating beyond easy local jurisdiction, a ban could become, in his words, a cosmetic intervention rather than real protection.

A second government track is moving in parallel. A new Films and Publications Amendment Bill is aimed at tackling child pornography rather than censoring society, according to the Global Legal Post. Deputy minister Pinky Kekana said the bill does not concern itself with what citizens may publish on social media, but would empower the classification board to facilitate the removal of child pornography wherever it is published. The approach is surgical: criminal content gets removed, while ordinary young people's access is not blanket-restricted.

With nearly all school-age learners regularly online and most on social media before their teens, the question of who owns online safety is no longer theoretical. It is the daily reality of a generation that grew up on these platforms — and the answer South Africa is testing is that the platforms, the state, and the law own it together.

Young People Are Already Leading the Online Safety Debate

The most striking part of the weekend was who did the arguing. Finalists from all nine provinces stood up in a mock court to navigate constitutional provisions on equality, expression, association, children's rights, and education — applying a decades-old Bill of Rights to group chats, school discipline, and digital surveillance. Kubayi praised the students for treating the Constitution as a living document that evolves alongside technology, and urged the finalists to consider careers in law, calling for fearless young thinkers to champion the rule of law. The event coincided with the thirtieth anniversary of the Constitution.

For Gen Z, the shift in framing matters. It moves the conversation away from "log off, kid" scolding and toward demands for safer platform design, enforceable duties, and real legal literacy in classrooms. The minister's framing also plugs into a wider regional conversation: Zimbabwe's government is pushing a child online protection policy running through 2030, according to Botswana's Daily News reporting on regional developments. But South Africa's constitutional framing goes further, making online safety a rights obligation rather than a policy favour. For more on young people pushing for change, see our social justice coverage, including how Meta's teen settlement is changing Instagram and Facebook for younger users.

Whether the constitutional obligation turns into enforceable platform rules is the next fight, and sceptics are right to ask how a government compels companies headquartered on other continents. But one of Africa's biggest democracies has now said the quiet part out loud: the internet's dangers are not children's homework. Online safety is grown-up work — and the grown-ups are finally claiming it.