Ensuring a Safe Online Environment for Children Remains a Top Priority

Minors accessing harmful online content, particularly via social media, is a top internet safety priority in South Africa and worldwide.

That’s according to ISPA, South Africa’s official internet Industry Representative Body (IRB), on the eve of Safer Internet Day (SID) set for tomorrow, 10 February.

SID 2026 is focused on creating a safer, more responsible online environment for young people worldwide. This annual event comes around this year as more and more countries are passing or considering passing laws that restrict children’s social media access.

Most of the attention is on Australia, which implemented a ban on under sixteens holding accounts on specified platforms for reasons that included exposure to harmful content, as well as mental health concerns and cyberbullying.

The platforms of concern include TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook and Australia’s ban came into effect on 10 December 2025. While there are several legal challenges to Australia/s bold approach that will need to work themselves through the system, governments in France, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, and New Zealand are actively working to introduce similar prohibitions.

“History shows us that bans are blunt instruments, often carrying sharp consequences – from privacy concerns associated with age verification to minors exploiting easily-available workarounds. Australia adopting this approach speaks volumes about the urgency of taking steps in the face of growing evidence of harms relating to social media use” says Sasha Booth-Beharilal, ISPA chair.

In the spirit of SID, and in the run-up to the development of local approaches to online harms, ISPA provides South African parents and guardians with advice to help keep children safe on social media.

Today, there are many effective content blockers, monitoring apps and other high-tech interventions to keep children safe online.

Adults must research these options and implement what works for their families.

At the same time, parents must accept that children may still access social media on unprotected devices, such as those belonging to friends.

Once informed, actively talking to children in an age-appropriate way about the risks on social media is an absolute must.

A good starting point is explaining that the internet is not always a nice place, and just as in the real world, there are sometimes bad people and bad places.

Further, practical things parents and guardians can do include the following:

  • Draw up social media and internet access contracts between parents, guardians and children. There are many good examples online.
  • Commit the family’s shared norms and values to paper so that errant online and offline behaviour is easily identified.
  • Limit device access in bedrooms and at nighttime. Online predators and cyberbullies are more likely to strike when they think children will not be monitored by their parents.

Underpinning all of the above should be a foundational layer of appropriate instilled values that will immediately alert children to negative online behaviour and content that is best avoided.

ISPA believes that once the above has been done, legislative interventions become an extra layer of protection on top of an already solid foundation.

Ultimately, a healthy dose of critical thinking is the individual internet user’s best defence against online harms, regardless of their age.

“This SID, all of us can help others become more resilient against those that would do us harm online”, concludes Booth-Beharilal.

ISPA is a recognised Industry Representative Body (IRB) representing the interests of over 235 small, medium and large internet service and access provider members.

Check out ISPA’s Cyber Safety Resources page.

ISPA’s 30th Birthday Celebration at ZANOG@iWeek2026

Celebrate ISPA’s 30th Birthday with the internet Who’s Who at ZANOG@iWeek2026

Mark your calendar for South Africa’s leading ICT conference – from 21 to 23 April 2026 – at the Irene Country Lodge in Pretoria, Gauteng.

This year marks ISPA’s 30 year anniversary since a group of competing ISPs united in a move that would ensure fair competition in the South African market. ISPA, its members and supporters have made tremendous progress in liberalising the SA internet over the past three decades.

Following on the success of the most recent iWeek conference hosted in the Western Cape, South Africa’s official industry representative body for ISPs will again be co-hosting this year’s leading SA ICT conference with ZANOG (the South African Network Operators Group).

This powerful collaboration will ensure that the conference attracts engineers and business professionals from South Africa’s top internet and communications companies, as well as government representatives and future leaders of the internet sector in Southern Africa.

ZANOG@iWeek2026 will be the 21st iWeek conference held since 2000 and, as always, attendance is entirely free.

The theme for the first day of ZANOG@iWeek2026 will be “Towards Universal and Meaningful Connectivity” comprising a series of presentations that will be inspiring and thought-provoking for ISPs and other delegates working to connect our country. Whereas about 80% of South Africans are active internet users, there is still much work to be done to improve the quality and cost of services, and many challenges to be overcome to connect the remaining 20% and close the digital divide in SA.

ZANOG@iWeek2026 also celebrates INX-ZA’s milestone achievement of 30 years of uninterrupted peering at South Africa’s IXPs (Internet eXchange Points). The first Johannesburg IXP (JINX) has had 100% uptime since 1996, as have the subsequent IXPs: CINX (Cape Town), DINX (Durban) and NBINX (Nelson Mandela Bay) which have never experienced a single minute of downtime, ever.

Confirmed event sponsors include Telcables as Exabyte Sponsor and Flexoptix as a Petabyte sponsor, along with ZA Registry Consortium (ZARC) and INX-ZA – the backbones of South Africa’s internet infrastructure at ZANOG@iWeek2026.

Speakers and session details will be announced closer to the time, and will include technology disruption and innovation, networking, cybersecurity and resilience, skills and collaboration, domains, internet governance, regulatory issues, and latest cutting edge technology evolutions.

ZANOG’s mission is to optimise and streamline Africa’s role within the global internet community and will focus on technological best-practices for local, regional communities and peering networks as infrastructure is developed throughout Africa.

Established in 1996, the Internet Service Providers’ Association is South Africa’s officially recognised internet representative body which currently represents over 245 members providing a diverse range of internet related services.

INX-ZA, the operators of South Africa’s neutral, community-driven internet exchange ecosystem, operates under the auspices of ISPA to provide a network for internet exchange points for ISPs to exchange data, reduce costs, improve speed and make the internet more resilient by keeping local traffic within the country. INX-ZA is a vital part of the digital ecosystem and has a 100% uptime at all its peering points including Africa’s oldest IXP, JINX, since 1996.

Check the ZANOG@iWeek2026 website regularly for updates.

For sponsorship opportunities, please see iWeek.org.za/sponsorships.

Don’t be a Voice Cloning Victim This Holiday Season

It’s the run-up to the year-end holiday season when criminals ramp up their efforts to fleece us and ISPA is warning of the growing problem of voice cloning.

South Africa’s official internet Industry Representative Body (IRB) says

with a 356% rise in impersonation fraud, according to the SA Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS), there is a serious issue emerging that has been met with silence from the responsible entities.

Call it voice cloning, voice scamming, voice mimicking calls, or audio deepfakes; the overriding fact is Artificial Intelligence (AI) can now convincingly mimic anyone’s voice. All it takes is a few minutes of recorded speech easily sourced from the internet and social media.

ISPA earlier this year requested the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to take action to prevent the unlawful use of mobile numbers. Voice cloning is the latest example of how we are beginning to not trust the phone numbers conveying information. ICASA and the National Consumer Commission (NCC) have thus far failed to announce any steps to address the general misuse of numbers.

“It’s been reported that up to 80% of South Africans struggle to differentiate between real and AI-generated content that includes voice calls,” says Sasha Booth-Beharilal, ISPA chair.

With a convincing digital copy of someone’s voice, criminals can manipulate victims into sending money or revealing personal information. For example, a voice cloning victim could be tricked into thinking their spouse was calling to ask for the urgent transfer of a significant amount of money to deal with some supposed emergency.

As with any scam, ISPA says our own common sense is the most effective weapon we have against criminals cloning the voices of our friends, family, neighbours and colleagues.

ISPA provides South Africans with the following hints and tips to help prevent them from becoming voice cloning scam victims this holiday season:

Firstly, take independent steps to confirm who is phoning, or leaving voice notes, and that obviously means calling the supposed person on their usual phone number to confirm the current situation.

Secondly, if you don’t already have agreed safe words or fact-checking phrases with the person supposedly calling, ask the person to provide answers to questions only they could know. A pet’s name, maiden name, first car or similar would help determine identity here.

Thirdly, stay calm, sceptical and pause – do not rush to action. Listen carefully for unnatural pauses, and overly lengthy sentences that appear monotone.

“AI doesn’t know everything and this lack of intimate knowledge can be effectively turned against fraudsters using AI to deepfake our voices,” concluded Booth-Beharilal.

Founded in 1996, ISPA is the only internet Industry Representative Body (IRB) officially recognised by the SA Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT). ISPA advocates for an open, free, and competitive internet landscape.

ISPA Welcomes Competition Potential of Policy Colloquium

ISPA, South Africa’s official internet Industry Representative Body (IRB), welcomes the recent announcement by the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies of tomorrow, 17 October 2025 as the date for a colloquium on ICT policy reform.

“ISPA is excited about the opportunity to review the current policy and legislative dispensation and the manner in which it is implemented,” says Sasha Booth-Beharilal, ISPA chair.

“While the Minister and the Department have recently refreshed national policy on rapid deployment of networks, data and cloud services and the use of radio frequency spectrum, this is a dynamic industry and there are always emerging issues, such as the impact of the entry of LEO satellite services in South Africa over the next decade and the way in which AI is changing the way we live and work.”

It is also clear that the current policy targets require revision and updating.

“The connectivity targets set out in the South Africa Connect National Broadband Policy and other documents like the National Infrastructure Plan 2050 have been missed or are clearly going to be missed,” she says.

ISPA would like to see a broad consultative process to reformulate these targets and to develop clear strategies to ensure future deadlines are met.

“ISPA supports the adoption of targets linked to the concept of Universal Meaningful Connectivity (UMC). It is not enough to have targets limited to connecting schools or households: we also need to ensure that the services provided over that connectivity are affordable for all South Africans, that they can afford the devices such as tablets and smartphones needed to use the service, and have the skills to use the service safely and securely,” adds Booth-Beharilal.

Another hot button issue for ISPA is the need to address funding and performance shortcomings which are hampering efficient regulation of the sector. This is urgent given the number of critical processes which ICASA will have to oversee over the next five years, including the next spectrum auction, renewal of service licences and IMT spectrum licences, reviewing its regulations on transformation and updating the licensing and satellite licensing frameworks to accommodate LEO providers.

“ISPA proposes that – after 25 years – it is an opportune time to undertake a full institutional review of the operation of the communications regulator to increase its effectiveness and delivery in a complicated and evolving sector.

“At the same time the success of the 2022 spectrum auction in raising money for the fiscus is a clear message to the government of the value of ICASA and its central role in South Africa’s digital future,” concludes Booth-Beharilal.

Founded in 1996, ISPA is the only internet Industry Representative Body (IRB) officially recognised by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT). ISPA advocates for an open, free, and competitive internet landscape.

For further information, please contact the ISPA secretariat on the Contact ISPA page.

ISPA Welcomes New AFRINIC Board

South Africa’s official internet Industry Representative Body (IRB), ISPA, has extended warm congratulations to the newly-elected Board of AFRINIC (The African Network Information Centre), Africa’s Regional Internet Registry (RIR).

ISPA wrote to the incoming AFRINIC Board after online elections were held last week.

In the letter, chair Sasha Booth-Beharilal offered ISPA’s full support for what is an inclusive and competent Board and thanked the members for their willingness to serve the African internet community.

“We would like to express our confidence in the Board’s ability to tackle the significant challenges that remain ahead on the road to restoring AFRINIC’s governance”, wrote Booth-Beharilal.

AFRINIC has been without a functioning Board for the past three years, beset by poor governance, internal strife and legal issues. As a significant number of ISPA members are also AFRINIC members, ISPA has played an active role in getting the RIR responsible for managing and allocating Africa’s internet number resources firmly back on track.

Amongst other interventions, ISPA recommended voting for a specific set of candidates for the good of the African internet. ISPA is pleased that all of the capable candidates it supported have been elected to the AFRINIC Board.

“The entire African internet community is no doubt breathing a lot easier this week as an elected Board again takes control of AFRINIC in the interests of the continent, the internet community and the African internet user who so greatly depends on a functioning internet,” says Booth-Beharilal.

ISPA suggested that the appointment of a CEO and support staff should be an “obvious priority”, while noting that AFRINIC staff deserve to be commended for their efforts to maintain AFRINIC’s day-to-day operations during this difficult time.

ISPA also wrote in the letter that the status of members who have joined AFRINIC since 19th September 2023 should be confirmed; a clear timeline for the calling of an Annual General Members’ Meeting (AGMM) should be prioritised; the internet community should be provided with an update on all pending litigation; the list of possibly fraudulent presented during the recent annulled election should be made public; and international internet governance initiatives should be supported; and.

Finally, ISPA said it “believes that the appointment of this AFRINIC Board marks a new, more positive chapter in the organisation’s history, and we wish the members of the Board all the best for the future. We remain at your service to provide any assistance we can.”

The incoming AFRINIC Board members are as follows: Abdelaziz Hilali, Emmanuel Adewale Adedokun, Kaleem Usmani, Ntumba Kayemba Laurent, Carla Sanderson, Fiona Asonga, Benjamin Mark Roberts and Ajao Adewole David.

Founded in 1996, ISPA is the only internet Industry Representative Body (IRB) officially recognised by the SA Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT). ISPA advocates for an open, free, and competitive internet landscape.

Visit www.ispa.org.za for more information and follow ISPA on X and Linkedin.

Please see ISPA’s recent letter to the incoming AFRINIC Board: ISPA-Support-Letter-AFRINIC-Board

Online Voting for New AFRINIC Board Set From 10 – 12 September 2025

ISPA, SA’s official internet Industry Representative Body (IRB), is reminding members of AFRINIC (The African Network Information Centre) that online voting for the organisation’s new Board opens today and urges them to vote for specific, worthy candidates.

Online voting for the all-important Board of Africa’s Regional Internet Registry (RIR) is scheduled to run from 10 to 12 September 2025 (there will be no in-person voting).

AFRINIC has been without a functioning Board for three years. An attempt to hold an election earlier this year was annulled after allegations of voting fraud were raised by numerous resource members.

“It is crucial for competent persons to take control of AFRINIC and steer it to a new, drama-free future centred on technical proficiency and wise decision-making, always with the African internet community and end users top of mind,” says Sasha Booth-Beharilal, ISPA Chair.

While ISPA has traditionally refrained historically from making specific AFRINIC voting recommendations, the unusual nature of the recent elections means ISPA is forced to recommend voting for a capable set of candidates for the good of the African internet. ISPA is pleased that all of the candidates it supported in the previous (annulled) election are standing again.

After consultation with other stakeholders, colleagues and industry associations, ISPA’s Board strongly encourages all AFRINIC resource members to vote for the following list of candidates:

  • Seat one: North Africa Candidate: Abdelaziz Hilali
  • Seat two: West Africa Candidate: Emmanuel Adewale Adedokun
  • Seat three: Indian Ocean Candidate: Kaleem Usmani
  • Seat four: Central Africa Candidate: Ntumba Kayemba Laurent
  • Seat five: Southern Africa Candidate: Carla Sanderson
  • Seat six: Eastern Africa Candidate: Fiona Asonga
  • Seat seven: Region Independent Candidates: Benjamin Mark Roberts
  • Seat eight: Region Independent Candidates: Ajao Adewole David

While noting that there are other nominees who are also well-qualified to serve on AFRINIC’s Board, ISPA believes that voting for this particular slate of candidates will assure the highest chance of success in the AFRINIC elections.

ISPA remains committed to supporting its members in maintaining the security and integrity of their network resources.

Visit the AFRINIC elections website [https://elections.afrinic.net/] for more information.

Alternatively, should you require additional clarification, please contact secretariat@ispa.org.za.

Applications Open for the ISPA Inspires Educational Sponsorship 2025

South Africa’s Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) invites applications for its “ISPA Inspires scholarship” for the 2026 academic year. Applications open today, Monday, 1 September, and will close on 30 September, 2025.

Visit the ISPA Inspires website for more information and to register and submit your application.

Sponsorship for the 2026 academic year will be awarded to one or more promising young candidates interested in pursuing a career in the ISP (Internet Service Provider) sector. Sponsorship is available not only for universities, TVET, and technical colleges but also for any institution providing accredited ICT training or sector-specific courses where there is an identified shortage of skills in South Africa.

ISPA Inspires is a skills development project by ISPA’s Social Development Working Group and is now entering its sixth year. Applications for sponsorship of enthusiastic future ICT professionals during their 2026 academic year are now open.

“ISPA is dedicated to building a skilled and innovative ICT workforce for South Africa. The ISPA Inspires sponsorship is a vital initiative that supports talented students and contributes to the growth of our sector,” says Aurora Vani, Chairperson of ISPA’s Social Development Working Group.

Who should apply:

  • South African citizens

  • Current or prospective undergraduate students enrolled for the 2025 academic year at a South African TVET college, university, registered private college, or registered higher educational institution

  • Applicants enrolled or planning to enrol in a field of study related to ICT (Information and Communications Technology)

  • Priority will be given to previously disadvantaged individuals.

Note: Postgraduates and students already funded by an existing bursary or scholarship need not apply.

Previous experience in the information technology industry is not a prerequisite for applying.

For more information, please visit ispa.org.za/inspires.

ISPA’s Take-Down Process Protects Learners From Local Scams

With school holidays in full-swing, parents are no doubt resting a little easier knowing that ISPA, SA’s official internet Industry Representative Body (IRB), is removing an average of three to four problematic websites from the local internet every week.

Online scammers target different age groups for different types of scams, with older adults more likely to be fooled by romance and charity donation scams, middle-aged adults often falling victim to investment scams and pyramid schemes, and young adults to virtual currency scams. School goers are not immune from being targeted, with fake giveaways, fake scholarships and job recruitment scams being the most common.

To target South Africans, many of these scams rely on local websites. These offer anything from fake training certificates and fake job recruitment (for a “fee”!) to fake puppies. The scammers—frequently based overseas—set-up websites pretending to be local businesses because consumers are more likely to purchase fake goods from a site that appears to be locally operated.

ISPA’s take-down notice (TDN) procedure can be used by a parent, guardian or anyone else who reasonably suspects that a website is unlawful. Once a take-down is lodged for a site, the site host must act expeditiously to remove the site, ensuring that nobody else can be scammed by that website. Reporting and eliminating problematic online content boosts online safety for all South Africans.

ISPA Chair, Sasha Booth-Beharilal, says: “Online threats to the country’s children are real, but they can be mitigated by parents taking progressive action in the face of potential danger.

Of the take-downs accepted by ISPA last year, 44% were for security-related infringements (scam sites and phishing sites), 40% were for intellectual property rights infringements (trademark and copyright claims) and 6% concerned human dignity (defamation or disclosure of personal information).

ISPA can only accept take-down requests that fall within its jurisdiction, and a large portion of the content reported via the take-down notice is hosted overseas. Only a third of the take-downs received involve content hosted by ISPA’s members, but the process is extremely effective for dealing with valid requests, with 96% of the accepted take-down notices resulting in the removal of the website content.

It must be noted that ISPA does not assess the validity of the legal claims made in a take-down notice. To prevent abuse of the process, the provisioning legislation—the Electronic Communications & Transactions Act, 2002 (‘ECT Act’)—stipulates that any person who lodges a take-down knowing that it misrepresents the facts, is liable for damages for any resulting wrongful take-down. The ECT Act gives ISPA an administrative role in processing the take-down requests. ISPA verifies that each take-down notice meets the requirements set out in the Act, and that it is correctly targeted at an ISPA member. A valid take-down notice typically results in the removal of a website within 48 hours.

ISPA’s take-down notice process is a significant benefit of ISPA membership. Once they establish a process for handling take-down notifications, ISPA’s members are shielded from liability for third-party content that they host or carry. ISPA membership now stands at some 235 firms who have committed themselves to upholding the ISPA Code, including the take-down notice process.

For more information about ISPA’s take-down process, please visit https://ispa.org.za/tdn.

ISPA Welcomes Hints of Flexibility in ICT Policy

As the deadline nears for public comment on the Communications Minister’s proposed new policy direction, ISPA says its submission supports the finalisation of the draft direction in its current form.

Extending the use of the Equity Equivalent Investment Programme (EEIP) to the broadband telecommunications sector, as proposed by Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi, is a welcome development and ISPA looks forward to a speedy resolution of this process which hints at welcome innovation and flexibility in official ICT policy.

“As others including the President have noted, the proposed EEIP is not only consistent with current laws, it is an innovative way to take empowerment to another level while enabling greater investment in the economy, particularly by multinationals,” says Sasha Booth-Beharilal, ISPA chair.

The current 30% historically disadvantaged shareholding requirement for investments in licensed SA ICT firms has been criticised as hindering foreign investment in South Africa.

EEIPs take a broader approach to empowerment and also focus on initiatives that contribute to greater socioeconomic development such as rural infrastructure programmes, skills development, job creation and research & innovation, amongst others.

In the medium term, ISPA is hopeful that a finalised EEIP policy direction will see its members and others being able to take advantage of wholesale satellite service opportunities, increasing the country’s penetration of digital voice and data services with all the associated benefits.

ISPA is South Africa’s official internet Industry Representative Body (IRB). Over the past decade alone ISPA has grown from 168 small, medium and large internet and access providers to 235 firms who have committed themselves to upholding the ISPA Code.

ISPA statement on AFRINIC elections

On Monday, 23rd June, during the in-person AFRINIC elections held in Mauritius, serious problems with the election process became apparent. This included:

  • Individuals arriving with more than 800 purported Powers of Attorney for AFRINIC members. (AFRINIC has fewer than 2400 members in total.)
  • A duly authorised representative of a resource holder attempting to vote, only to be informed that another person had already submitted a vote on their behalf thanks to a Power of Attorney, which that resource holder had not provided to any third party.
  • A representative of a resource holder, learning that a Power of Attorney had been submitted on their behalf, only to find that that particular Power of Attorney—the existence of which had already been recorded by AFRINIC staff—had been mysteriously removed from the record by the time a copy was requested.

There have been multiple additional reports from other organisations around Africa that individuals appear to have voted on their behalf based on seemingly fraudulent Powers of Attorney.

These concerns were drawn to the attention of the Chairs of AFRINIC’s Nominations and Elections Committees during the course of voting on Monday. While the Chairperson of the Nominations Committee did eventually “suspend” voting, it has become abundantly clear that the option for unlimited in-person voting based on unverified Powers of Attorney has opened up the AFRINIC election to manipulation and potential fraud. Consequently, ISPA’s attorney opened a criminal case with the Mauritian police on Monday evening.

ISPA calls upon AFRINIC and the Official Receiver:

  • To cooperate fully with the police investigation of this matter.
  • To nullify the “suspended” election.
  • To publish a full list of the organisations on whose behalf Powers of Attorney were submitted to AFRINIC, so that those organisations can be made aware of the possible misrepresentation of their organisations.
  • To review the Election Guidelines and Mechanisms to ensure that in-person voting representatives wielding Powers of Attorney are subject to appropriate verification that they do, in fact, represent the relevant resource holder. This must require a positive confirmation from the relevant resource holder.

It is vital to the development of the internet in Africa that an election for AFRINIC’s Board should take place as swiftly as possible. However it is imperative that the election process be free and fair. The current process clearly does not meet these requirements.

If your company is an AFRINIC resource member, and you have evidence that an unauthorised third party submitted a Power of Attorney on your behalf, please get in touch with ISPA (secretariat@ispa.org.za), so that we can put you in touch with the investigating officer handling the case in Mauritius.