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Films and Publications Act, 1996 (Act No. 65 of 1996)

Notices

Notice in terms of Section 24C and Section 27A of the Films and Publications Act, 1996 (Act No. 65 of 1996), as amended

Schedule 1

1. Definitions

 

In this Notice, any word or expression to which a meaning has been assigned in the Act, shall have the meaning so assigned and, unless the context otherwise indicates—

 

“Act”

means the Films and Publications Act, 1996 (Act No. 65 of 1996), as amended from time to time;

 

“child oriented service”

means a contact service and includes a content service which is specifically targeted at children;

 

“child pornography”

means child pornography as defined in section 1 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, 2007 (Act No. 32 of 2007);

 

“contact service”

means any service intended to enable people previously unacquainted with each other to make initial contact and to communicate with each other;

 

“content”

means any sound, text, still picture, moving picture, other audio-visual representation or sensory representation and includes any combination of the preceding which is capable of being created, manipulated, stored, retrieved or communicated but excludes content contained in private communications between consumers;

 

“content service”

means—

(i) the provision of content; or
(ii) the exercise of editorial control over the content conveyed via a communications network, as defined in the Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (Act No. 35 of 2005), to the public or sections of the public; and

 

“day”

means any number of days prescribed in these Regulations and shall be reckoned exclusively of the first and inclusively of the last day unless the last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday or official South African Public Holiday, in which case the last day shall be the next succeeding business day;

 

“distribute”

in relation to a film, game or a publication, without derogating from the ordinary meaning of that word, includes—

(i) to stream content through the internet, social media or other electronic mediums;
(ii) to sell, hire out or offer or keep for sale or hire, including using the internet; and
(iii) for purposes of sections 24A and 24B, to hand or exhibit a film, game or a publication to a person under the age of 18 years, and also the failure to take reasonable steps to prevent access thereof by such a person;

 

“distributor”

means a person who conducts the business of distributing films, games or publications and includes a commercial online distributor;

 

“FPB”

means the Film and Publication Board, established in terms of section 3 of the Act;

 

“internet”

means the internet as defined in section 1 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 (Act No. 25 of 2002);

 

“internet service provider”

means any person who carries on the business of providing access to the Internet by any means;

 

“non-commercial online distributor”

means any person who distributes content using the internet, or enables content to be distributed by a user of online services, for personal or private purposes;

 

“operator”

means any person who provides a child oriented contact service or content service, including internet chatrooms;

 

“prohibited content”

means content which amounts to propaganda for war, incitement of imminent violence, advocacy of hatred that is based on an identifiable group characteristic, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm, or is prohibited in sections 16(2), 16(4) and 18(3) of the Act.