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By Tshwarelo Hunter Mogakane
PRETORIA - Mpumalanga education authorities have found themselves in hot water following complaints Grade 12 learners were using government-issued tablets to access pornography.
The tablets are part of the provincial government’s R500 million e-learning programme launched in April by Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane and Education MEC Bonakele Majuba.
At the time, Mtshweni-Tsipane said the launch included the delivery of 6,700 laptops for teachers and 55,000 tablets for learners aimed at meeting the challenges of a technologically advancing society.
She added the tablets were pre-loaded with software and e-content and data ready for offline use.
The DFA’s sister publication the Pretoria News interviewed learners from Masana Secondary School in Bushbuckridge, who admitted to using the gadgets to access pornography.
Earlier in the week, the department identified the school as one of the offenders and planned a visit to address the matter with management and the school governing body.
“Most learners here own smartphones that they’ve always used for whatever they want, specifically social media. It’s not like this is something new. We have been watching porn way before the tablets were given to us. Right now we just take advantage of the bigger gadgets,” said one female learner, who cannot be named as she is a minor.
The learner said the data packages they received from the department on a monthly basis were “useless”.
“We only get 1GB per month. That’s nothing at all. You can’t even watch a Netflix series with that. That is why some of the girls at the school prefer to date older guys who can afford to buy them up to 60GB in monthly data. Others are lucky that their parents have installed wi-fi poles at their homes,” she said.
A male learner who also asked to speak on condition of anonymity, said porn was “not a big deal”.
“Yes, we watch porn clips now and then when a teacher misses a class, but that’s not our main interest. We enjoy watching animé and playing games on these free tablets. Some have apps to design posters for house parties,” he said.
A parent living in Dwarsloop said she caught her daughter surfing “shocking sites”.
“These children will put you in the hospital. When I discovered my daughter had visited a porn site, she denied everything. She said she entered a search for biblehub, but something else came up. They call them pop-up. I don’t know what that means,” said the parent, who called on the department to block porn sites on the gadgets.
University of Mpumalanga’s public administration senior lecturer Dr John Molepo agreed that the department should block the sites.
“I’m a lecturer working with young students who are curious about what happens on the internet. We have blocked access to any pornographic material. No matter what you do, there is no way to access such sites using our computers. The department should do the same. It is that simple,” said Molepo.
DA leader in Mpumalanga Jane Sithole said the department was now working towards blocking the sites following pressure from the opposition party.
“The Mpumalanga Department of Education was compelled to take action as more and more parents are coming forward with complaints, and evidence that learners are accessing pornographic material on the tablets they provided. Some of the parents resorted to confiscating the tablets and returning them to the department to protect their children from accessing such material.
“Although the department alleges that they did not know of this until the DA brought this to the attention of MEC Bonakele Majuba on August 15, it should have known better and blocked those sites before issuing the tablets to learners,” said Sithole.
Provincial department spokesperson Gerald Sambo admitted it was possible to block pornographic sites.
“We are just not sure if the blocked sites will remain blocked when the learners use wi-fi. Our technical experts will continue to monitor the situation.
“We also appeal to parents to speak to their children about the dangers of pornography, especially because a larger population of learners also have cellphones that can access the internet,” said Sambo.