South Africa’s rules for social media video age restrictions — children banned from playing games alone
The Film and Publications Board (FPB) has gazetted updated classification guidelines for films, games, and non-news publications.
These guidelines pave the way for the FPB to issue age restrictions for online content.
This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Film and Publications Amendment Act — also called the Internet censorship bill — into law.
Under the new law, commercial content distributors must register with the FPB and submit their content for classification before publication.
This comes at a cost to the content distributor.
The FPB has yet to adequately answer questions about how it plans to handle live streamers or filmmakers on platforms like Twitch and YouTube who may earn a few rands from their videos.
Non-commercial distributors also fall within the FPB’s jurisdiction if someone complains about something they posted online.
The Amendment Act allows anyone to complain to the FPB about “prohibited content” — specifically, hate speech and incitement of violence.
The FPB has assured it won’t allow bad-faith actors to silence speech they don’t like by accusing it of being hate speech or incitement.
It said it would be guided by the definitions established for “hate speech” and “incitement” by South Africa’s courts.
It promised to offer various mechanisms to appeal rulings handed down by its enforcement committee.
The FPB’s new classification guidelines explicitly state that distribution includes online content:
“The definitions of the words distributor and distribute are broad enough to encompass the streaming of content through the Internet, social media or other electronic mediums.”
Law firm Webber Wentzel previously warned that these changes could have far-reaching implications beyond envisioned legislation to regulate online harms.
Child playing Minecraft on a tablet PC. Credit: Improvisor/Shutterstock.com
The updated guidelines include changes to the FPB’s rules for classifying games, which states: “There is no ‘All ages’ age rating for games.”
Children under the age of 10 must play games under adult supervision at all times, according to the FPB.
The FPB’s classification categories for games are also defined in a way that results in curious scenarios.
Children under 16 could see nudity, violence, and even sexual violence in a game before they may be exposed to prejudice.
The guidelines explain that content classifiers must take the following elements into account when determining age restrictions:
- Competitive intensity (video games only)
- Criminal techniques
- Substance abuse
- Imitative acts and techniques
- Horror
- Language
- Nudity
- Prejudice
- Sexual conduct
- Sexual violence
- Violence
For a game to be classified 10–12PG, it may not use incentives or rewards for classifiable elements, and the occurrences of classifiable elements may not be realistic.
Games rated 13 are allowed some use of incentives or rewards for certain classifiable elements — such as giving points or gear when killing enemies.
Such a game may contain occurrences of implied, verbal, or actual low-impact nudity in sexual contexts. No details, close-ups or slow-motion nudity is allowed.
First-person games with this rating may contain mild impact violence. Third-person games may include moderate impact violence.
Content may contain only implied, verbal, or actual mild-impact domestic violence, provided it is justified within context, and the content conveys a strong message against it.
No details, close-ups or slow-motion violence is allowed.
However, games rated suitable for 13-year-olds may not contain any occurrences of implied, verbal, or actual prejudice.
The guidelines define prejudice as: “pre-conceived judgement, or an adverse opinion or inclination, formed without just or rational grounds or before sufficient knowledge is gained, or that is based on group stereotypes, and that is degrading of human dignity”.
Groups include race, ethnicity, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language, birth or other identifiable group characteristics.
Role-playing games may therefore depict nudity, and even unrealistic mild- to moderate-impact violence before showing two factions in the world hating one another.
A simple example is a game like World of Warcraft. Its Battle for Azeroth expansion was originally rated 10–12PG, while Mists of Pandaria was rated 13.
Fantasy races in the world, such as Orcs, Humans, and Dwarves, hate one another with extreme prejudice, as do members of the game’s two opposing factions — the Alliance and Horde.
Works with powerful themes about prejudice like X-Men could also never do anything to be suitable for younger audiences in South Africa.
The FPB’s new classification guidelines take effect in the first week of August 2022.
Loading ...