South African children are spending more time online than ever, often with little or no adult supervision. This unsupervised exposure brings with it a wave of age-inappropriate experiences, from cyberbullying and sextortion, to harmful interactions with strangers and exposure to explicit content.
According to studies by UNICEF SA Kids Online and Be In Touch, more than 95% of children between Grades 4 and 11 have regular, unfiltered access to the internet.
The statistics are sobering:
62% of children own a phone or tablet by age 10.
83% have a social media account by age 12.
77% use their devices without any parental controls or filters.
67% have been cyberbullied or contacted by strangers online.
80% report that such interactions often happen at night.
Children frequently encounter disturbing content on platforms designed to be "child-friendly" and often lack the tools or confidence to seek help when things go wrong.
Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy and Evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa recalls sitting down with Jenna (not her real name), a mother of two boys, ages 12 and 9, as she shared the shocking discovery of her son’s exposure to violent, explicit, and deeply harmful online content.
The culprit? A WhatsApp group filled with children from their community in the Western Cape, where links to such material, including child pornography, had been shared.
Despite Jenna’s vigilance as a parent, her recent decision to disable parental controls, trusting in her son’s maturity, became a regretful turning point. “I thought he was safe,” she confessed, “but I had no idea what he could be exposed to right under my nose.”
Jenna’s story is not unique. It’s a distressing example of how unregulated, unfiltered online spaces expose South African children to unprecedented risks, often before they or their parents are prepared to handle them.
According to Collard and Kate Farina, Founder of BeInTouch and SFC Working Group member, the root of the issue lies in the tech industry being virtually unregulated. Social media platforms, driven by profit, prioritise data collection and user engagement over child safety.
While app stores attempt to enforce a 13-year age limit, this threshold is not based on neuroscience or child development research but on US privacy laws that allow data collection from children aged 13 and above.
Despite being technically able to do so easily, social media platforms don’t enforce the 13-year-old rule, a recent study by Cybersafe Kids shows 82% of kids aged 8-12 have their own social media and IMessage accounts.
Beyond emotional and psychological risks, children’s unsupervised internet access poses significant cybersecurity threats. Whether it’s clicking on phishing links, downloading malware, or unknowingly sharing sensitive information, children can expose their families to financial and privacy risks.
To address this, volunteer-led social movement SFC, formerly Smartphone-Free Childhood South Africa, supports parents to resist the growing pressure to introduce smartphones and social media before kids are ready.
Their digital parent pact connects like-minded parents within schools who sign up to commit voluntarily to delay giving their children smartphones until high school.
By creating a community of support, the pact helps prevent social isolation for children without smartphones while encouraging healthier technology habits. To date, all 18,000 registered primary schools in South Africa are part of the pact’s network.
Furthermore, Collard and Farina provide strategies for safer digital habits for parents and children, such as:
Enabling parental controls on devices and apps.
Regularly updating device software to patch security vulnerabilities.
Teaching children about digital privacy, password security, and how to recognise online threats.
Fostering critical thinking and digital mindfulness to help children make safer online decisions.
IOL