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Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (Act No. 36 of 2005)

Regulations

Regulations regarding the Code of Conduct for Broadcasting Service Licensees

5. Children

 

1) Broadcasting service licensees must not broadcast material which is harmful or disturbing to children at times when a large number of children is likely to be part of the audience.

 

2) Broadcasting service licensees must exercise particular caution, as provided below, in the depiction of violence in children's programming.

 

3) In children's programming portrayed by real-life characters, violence may, whether physical, verbal or emotional, only be portrayed when it is essential to the development of a character and plot.

 

4) Animated programming for children, while accepted as a stylised form of storytelling which may contain non-realistic violence, must not have violence as its central theme, and must not incite dangerous imitation.

 

5) Programming for children must with reasonable care deal with themes that could threaten their sense of security when portraying, for example, domestic conflict, death, crime or the use of drugs or alcohol.

 

6) Programming for children must with reasonable care deal with themes which could influence children to imitate acts which they see on screen or hear about, such as the use of plastic bags as toys, the use of matches or the use of dangerous household objects as toys.

 

7) Programming for children must not contain realistic scenes of violence which create the impression that violence is the preferred or only method to resolve conflict between individuals.

 

8) Programming for children must not contain realistic scenes of violence which minimise or gloss over the effect of violent acts. Any realistic depictions of violence must portray, in human terms, the consequences of that violence to its victims and its perpetrators.

 

9) Programming for children must not contain frightening or otherwise excessive special effects not required by the story line.

 

10) Offensive language, including profanity and other religiously insensitive material, must not be broadcast in programmes specially designed for children.

 

11) No excessively or grossly offensive language should be used before the watershed period on television or at times when a large number of children is likely to be part of the audience on television or radio.