Cyber Violence and the Digital Age | Professor Delano Cole van der Linde on Online Harm and Safer Digital Communities
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Professor Delano Cole van der Linde, Public Law Associate Professor at Stellenbosch University's Faculty of Law, joins Dr Katlego Letlonkane on SiyaKhula Live for a searching conversation on cyber violence - what it is, how South African law responds to it, and what it reveals about the societies producing it.
Recorded during Youth Month, the discussion opens with a working definition of cyber violence that spans cyberbullying, online harassment, sexual extortion, and the non-consensual dissemination of intimate images, before moving into the structural dynamics underneath: how digital platforms amplify existing social inequalities, how the perceived anonymity of online spaces creates a dangerous disconnect between speech and harm, and how the same technology that facilitates expression also facilitates xenophobia, queerphobia, and gender-based violence.
Professor van der Linde assesses South Africa's legislative framework - the Cybercrimes Act, the Films and Publications Act, the Sexual Offences Act - finding the legislation broadly progressive but identifying significant gaps in police training, victim support, and the practical gathering of digital evidence.
The conversation turns to children and young people navigating deeply digital identities: grooming and exploitation, the sexualisation of innocent content, the ethics of family vlogging and parental exposure of minors online, and the emerging question of whether child influencing constitutes a form of labour.
Professor van der Linde notes that YouTube automatically disables comments on content flagged as child-directed - a small but meaningful structural intervention - before broadening the discussion to what responsible digital citizenship actually requires. The episode closes on the question of justice itself: research showing that victims of intimate image abuse often want not incarceration but restorative accountability - the perpetrator sitting across from them, acknowledging the harm, and deleting the material.
Professor van der Linde's closing call is direct: sharing someone's intimate images without consent is a crime under three separate pieces of legislation, and treating people with basic kindness online is not optional - it is a legal and ethical obligation.
🎙️ Host: Dr Katlego Letlonkane 👤 Guest: Professor Delano Cole van der Linde 📅 Originally aired: Wednesday 11 June 2026 at 12:30 📻 SiyaKhula Live on MFM 92.6 #MFM926 #SiyaKhulaLive #CyberViolence #YouthMonth #SouthAfrica 🐿️🇿🇦
Recorded during Youth Month, the discussion opens with a working definition of cyber violence that spans cyberbullying, online harassment, sexual extortion, and the non-consensual dissemination of intimate images, before moving into the structural dynamics underneath: how digital platforms amplify existing social inequalities, how the perceived anonymity of online spaces creates a dangerous disconnect between speech and harm, and how the same technology that facilitates expression also facilitates xenophobia, queerphobia, and gender-based violence.
Professor van der Linde assesses South Africa's legislative framework - the Cybercrimes Act, the Films and Publications Act, the Sexual Offences Act - finding the legislation broadly progressive but identifying significant gaps in police training, victim support, and the practical gathering of digital evidence.
The conversation turns to children and young people navigating deeply digital identities: grooming and exploitation, the sexualisation of innocent content, the ethics of family vlogging and parental exposure of minors online, and the emerging question of whether child influencing constitutes a form of labour.
Professor van der Linde notes that YouTube automatically disables comments on content flagged as child-directed - a small but meaningful structural intervention - before broadening the discussion to what responsible digital citizenship actually requires. The episode closes on the question of justice itself: research showing that victims of intimate image abuse often want not incarceration but restorative accountability - the perpetrator sitting across from them, acknowledging the harm, and deleting the material.
Professor van der Linde's closing call is direct: sharing someone's intimate images without consent is a crime under three separate pieces of legislation, and treating people with basic kindness online is not optional - it is a legal and ethical obligation.
🎙️ Host: Dr Katlego Letlonkane 👤 Guest: Professor Delano Cole van der Linde 📅 Originally aired: Wednesday 11 June 2026 at 12:30 📻 SiyaKhula Live on MFM 92.6 #MFM926 #SiyaKhulaLive #CyberViolence #YouthMonth #SouthAfrica 🐿️🇿🇦
