MXit lashes out at poor media reporting
MXit today said that it is concerned about the ongoing “misleading and inaccurate use of its name in media reports across all media platforms, including television, print and online.”
MXit said that it is currently consulting its lawyers to determine whether the most recent example is a breach of the South African Press Code, or indeed if it amounts to defamation.
“In the latest example, media reports claim that MXit is responsible for a teenage girl from Johannesburg disappearing for 48 hours after telling her school that she would not be attending classes. Her parents allege that she may have met someone on MXit,” a MXit press statement said.
“The school is considering disciplinary action on the girls return and although the case is being investigated, there is no proof that a conversation with an unknown person on MXit led to the girl’s disappearance.”
MXit has contacted Parktown Girls’ High school, and a MXit representative will be speaking to both teachers and students about responsible social networking next week.
“We cannot condone this behaviour or attack on our brand and are simply calling on the media to be accurate in their reporting and headlining of stories. MXit is not the problem. We offer a system that allows people to communicate at a fraction of the cost of sending sms or voice calls.”
“Our users send approximately 35 000 messages per second during peak times and the MXit community visits our platform more than 20 million times a day. Even if it does emerge that she accepted a friend request from a stranger, it is not fair to condemn a technology of close to 15 million users for bad choices made by one user,” says Juan du Toit, international marketing manager for MXit.
“Whilst eTV was covering the missing girl story during its newscast at 7pm on Wednesday, they flashed a web address for a European teen pornography site during the newscaster’s report. This is simply unacceptable. There is no connection between MXit and these sites and we are horrified that prime time news would even show a web address of this nature.”
“Our philosophy is firm – we never promote or distribute any content that reflects any political, religious or pornographic view and even restrict advertising from popular consumer magazines that could be seen as even slightly “risky”. eTV’s actions were inappropriate and unethical,” adds Du Toit.
MXit highlighted that it has an obligation to ensure that its users understand that media reports are not entirely true.
“We take great care in ensuring that our users are consistently warned to use our network responsibly, to only accept contacts from people that they know and to never reveal their personal information,” adds Du Toit.
In addition to strict security measures for its users, MXit has also developed guidelines to help empower parents. “We offer a technology that allows users to communicate in a secure and inexpensive way. Although we understand that technology is sometimes difficult for parents to understand, we believe that they need to take responsibility for teaching their teenagers how to engage responsibly on all communications platform.
We have a chat room blocking feature that allows parents to shut down the chat room capability if they believe their teens are interacting inappropriately,” says Du Toit.
MXit unfairly reported on? Give your views
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