South Africa faces child cyber-safety crisis as online predators target minors

SOUTH AFRICAN children are increasingly being targeted by online predators, with parents and schools often underestimating the scale and seriousness of the threat. 

This is according to legal expert Ann-Suhet Marx, director and head of litigation at VDM Incorporated, a law firms specialising in cyber, criminal, family and property law.

Suhet Marx said the country is in the midst of a child cyber-safety crisis, marked by a sharp rise in cases where minors are manipulated, threatened or exploited online — frequently before families realise anything is wrong.

“We’re dealing with a generation that’s growing up online, but without the safety structures to match,” Marx said. “Parents and schools are suddenly finding themselves in situations they never imagined they’d need to know how to handle.”

Marx said one of the most common patterns involves teenagers being deceived into sharing private images with individuals posing as peers. In many cases, the images are later used to threaten or blackmail the child.

“Predators thrive on fear and shame,” she said. “Children often believe they caused the problem, when the blame lies entirely with the perpetrator.”

Another growing concern is online grooming through gaming platforms, particularly among children aged 10 to 12. Marx said perpetrators often build trust during gameplay before moving conversations to private messaging platforms, where children are gradually manipulated into sharing personal information or following instructions.

“In severe cases, this escalates into threats against the child’s game character or even their family,” she said. “To the child, it feels like part of the game. To the predator, it’s a calculated method of control.”

Marx said several factors make South African children especially vulnerable, including widespread access to mobile phones, limited adult supervision of online activity, weak age-verification on apps, cross-border criminal networks operating anonymously, and a lack of digital literacy education in many schools.

She warned that while South Africa is highly connected digitally, online safety structures remain inconsistent, creating gaps that predators actively exploit.

Despite this, Marx said South Africa has strong legal protections for children that are often underused. The Cybercrimes Act of 2021 criminalises cyber extortion, malicious communications, and the distribution or threat of distribution of intimate images, including those involving minors.

“Even threatening to share a child’s image constitutes a criminal offence,” she said.

Additional protections exist under the Children’s Act, the Films and Publications Amendment Act which addresses online grooming and child sexual abuse material and the Protection of Personal Information Act, which offers heightened safeguards for children’s personal data.

However, Marx said cybercrime involving minors remains severely underreported due to fear, embarrassment, concerns about social consequences, uncertainty about preserving evidence, and under-resourced digital forensic units.

“One of the most damaging beliefs is that deleting the content will help,” she said. “In reality, deleting destroys critical evidence that could lead to a successful prosecution.”

She urged parents and schools not to delete evidence, to preserve screenshots and chat logs, to remove children from platforms while keeping accounts active for investigation, and to report incidents both to service providers and the South African Police Service under the Cybercrimes Act.

Marx also warned that schools are increasingly on the frontline of cyber-related incidents, citing risks such as learner WhatsApp groups, peer-to-peer cyberbullying, password sharing, compromised devices and grooming cases first identified by educators.

“Schools urgently need digital conduct policies, staff training and clear reporting pathways,” she said. “Ignoring cyber-related incidents is no longer an option. There is a duty of care, and online harm has serious psychological and legal consequences.”

She said early intervention by families, schools and authorities can prevent incidents from escalating and reduce long-term harm to children.

SUNDAY TRIBUNE