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Cape Town - If you have evidence of corrupt activities or sexual offences on your digital device, you are obliged to report it to the police, or you could find yourself on the wrong side of the law.
This is according to a legal expert who says the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (PCCA) specifies that people are in contravention of the law if they engage in practices to alter evidence of corruption.
"An obligation exists on citizens to report any knowledge they have on matters relating to corruption or sexual offences. The common law duty to report corruption, has been codified in the 'PCCA' Act," specialist technology attorney, Russel Luck, told Fin24.
Specifically, the act says that a person is guilty of obstruction of law enforcement if he or she "destroys, alters, mutilates or falsifies any book, document, valuable security, account, computer system, disk, computer printout or other electronic device or any entry in such book, document, account or electronic device, or is privy to any such act".
"The provisions are onerous and compel citizens to share information relating to corruption with law enforcement services," said Luck.
READ: Your smartphone could land you in jail
Sexual offences
The act also says that failure to report an offence to the police places that person on the wrong side of the law, even if the alleged offence is outside of the country, as long as the accused person is a resident or citizen.
"Subject to the provisions of section 37(2), any person who fails to comply with subsection, is guilty of an offence."
The Sexual Offences and Related Matters Amendment Act 32 of 2007 mandates that if a person has any knowledge of sexual offences against children or the mentally ill to report it to the police.
Declining to report corruption could land you in serious trouble. (Shutterstock)
This would include cellphone footage of children engaging in sexting, or the practice of sharing sexually explicit pictures of themselves on social networks.
The Sexual Offences Act describes child pornography as "any image, however created, or any description or presentation of a person, real or simulated, who is, or who is depicted or described or presented as being, under the age of 18 years, of an explicit or sexual nature, whether such image or description or presentation is intended to stimulate erotic or aesthetic feelings or not", in part.
It is also illegal to expose children to pornography and the act requires that knowledge of sexual offences regarding children, the mentally ill and animals be immediately reported to the police.
"A person who fails to report such knowledge as contemplated in paragraph (a) is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years or to both a fine and such imprisonment," the document stipulates.
Digital evidence
However, using evidence on phones to blackmail people is also illegal, according to Luck.
"Over and above such legislation, it is a common law offence to agree not to report a crime in return for a benefit. The offence of 'compounding' is well established in our jurisprudence and prohibits citizens from choosing not to report crimes for self-gain," said Luck.
Luck further warned that digital evidence of crimes may oblige people to submit their devices to court.
"Information on a cellphone containing evidence can be subpoenaed if it useful to prove facts in a civil or criminal matter. Moreover, information transmitted through cellphones can be monitored and intercepted to prevent crime or prosecute criminals in terms of Rica (Regulation of Interception and Provision for the Communication Related Information Act)."
Watch this online video on how to recognise and report child abuse:
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