Online communities are now mainstream, driven largely by kids who want to be able to communicate cheaply and instantly with one another.

Cellular phone calls are perceived as expensive by people on an allowance. SMS technology is cheaper but the least expensive by far is MXit, which is a locally developed instant messaging application that runs on new- generation mobile phones.

It bypasses the entire SMS network, sending messages via the mobile Internet and reducing costs dramatically. Messages are billed according to the amount of data sent. Most kids we surveyed claimed it costs just a couple of cents to fire off a quick message. Contrast that with an SMS message that can cost nearly a rand. MXit is significantly cheaper than SMS — even with heavy usage.

Another popular feature is that kids can communicate using their handsets or their PCs — they’re fully interoperable. Messages are limited to 2000 characters, which is more than most truculent teenagers will utter out loud in a month.

MXit has a user base upwards of 2million and directs more than 5million messages a day. It is an international system but the bulk of users are South African teenagers — and it’s a hit with them.

Chloë Linsley, 17, says MXit is the cheapest way for her and her friends to communicate electronically.

“Pretty much all my friends use it because it’s cheap and it works,” she says. “You have to register on the Web and download the software to use it but, once it’s set up, it’s really cheap. You can choose the people you want to talk to or join groups of random people. I just use it to send and receive friends’ messages. ”

Andrew McNaught, 14, said most of his friends used MXit.

“I don’t use it every day — maybe twice a week. My friends use it because it’s cheaper than SMS but you have to have an Internet- enabled phone for it to work. You visit the website, download the software, register and then you’re in business,” he says.

Although a growing number of cellphones are supplied with Internet capabilities built in, these models tend to be on the pricey side. The phone has to contain Java, software that runs applications like MXit and games, and it has to have a high-speed connection to a cellular network.

“What’s cool is that you can use MXit to talk to people on different chat systems like Google Talk and you can use it from a PC,” says McNaught.

MXit is a Stellenbosch-based company started by programmer Herman Heunis. It’s been a bit of a slog but he says it turns a profit. Now thousands of new users join every day. The first version of the software was launched in May 2005. Now there are around 5million log- ons a day. Heunis says he plans to gain a global audience for the technology.

It works like this: you download the application to your cellphone, register as a user and then add contacts with whom you want to communicate. The only cost is for the data transfer over the cellular network, which is a fraction of the cost of regular SMS messaging.

If one of your contacts is online and you have the software open, you can see they are there and chat. Or you can join chatrooms where you can talk to strangers about any number of topics.

But there is a downside to MXit technology — maybe not the technology itself, but the use of it.

Last year in October an alleged paedophile made use of the MXit service to gain the trust of a 16-year- old girl living in Ekurhuleni and was able to get her home address. The 33-year-old man then abducted the girl outside her Springs home and took her to a house where he allegedly sexually assaulted her and kept her captive for five days. The girl was able to escape.

In a sting operation, police caught the man by pretending to be another teenage girl on MXit.

The lesson here is that there are rules to being online. Never give out your telephone number or address. Some experts say even using your real name online is a risk. In the faceless online world it’s best not to take chances.

The Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) of 2002 absolves service providers like MXit from liability for abuse of the systems they run, so it’s up to parents to keep tabs on their kids’ online activities.

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