Media Monitoring Africa (“MMA”) provides this submission on the Draft Films and Publications Amendment Regulations, 2020 (“the Draft Regulations”), in response to the call for submissions published by the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies (“the Minister”). The Draft Regulations raise issues on which MMA has been consistently engaged, including through the following work:

1.1.  In April 2016, MMA hosted a multi-stakeholder workshop focused on the regulation of digital content. Through this workshop, one of the core aims was to deepen an understanding of the issues by and between the relevant stakeholders, and further establish areas of commonality and principle agreement.

1.2.  In May 2016, MMA prepared a written submission on the Films and Publications

1.3.  Currently, MMA – together with the Film and Publication Board (“FPB”) and Google South Africa, among others – spearheads the Web Rangers programme. Web Rangers is an international digital and media literacy programme designed to empower young people with critical skills on how to use the internet and social media responsibly and confidently.