Meta hosted the 2026 Youth Online Safety Summit this week. Social media company Meta has deployed a mandatory system update that automatically shifts teenage user profiles into highly restricted safety configurations. According to Meta, the backend product overhaul – known as “Teen Accounts” – structurally reshapes data visibility, privacy configurations and messaging access defaults across…
South African inflation rose by less than expected in May, which analysts said reduced the likelihood of another interest rate hike next month. Headline consumer inflation quickened to 4.5% year on year from 4% in April. That was the highest reading since July 2024. However, economists polled by Reuters had expected 4.7%. The rise was…
Vishal Barapatre, Group Chief Technology Officer at In2IT Technologies. (Image: Supplied) Healthcare is investing heavily in technology, but outcomes do not always improve at the same rate or deliver the desired effect. The issue is rarely a lack of tools. More often, it comes down to the way those tools are designed, connected and maintained….
South Africa’s decision to scrap the 9% ad valorem excise duty on entry-level smartphones has been singled out by the GSMA as one of the clearest examples on the continent of how tax reform can bring people online. The plaudits for the decision, which was championed by communications minister Solly Malatsi, come in a new…
AI should change how we train young talent, not whether we hire it. As South Africa marks Youth Day on 16 June, the country continues to face one of its biggest economic challenges – helping young people find meaningful work. According to Statistics South Africa’s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, 4.7 million South Africans aged…
Handling sensitive information according to best practice. As organisations face growing cyber threats, stricter compliance requirements and increased scrutiny around how data is managed, information security has become a key factor in technology buying decisions. Businesses are no longer evaluating digital platforms solely on functionality, pricing or ease of use. They also want assurance that…
57% of respondents to a Yazi survey said they had sacrificed essentials to fund online gambling. (Photograph by Nicola Mawson) More than half of online gamblers in a survey said they sacrificed essentials to fund betting and almost a third had borrowed money to gamble. This, even as an international study shows operators are increasingly…
Sbu Ngwane, senior general manager at Bolt South Africa. Bolt South Africa is rolling out expanded rider identity verification and urging passengers to actively use in-app safety tools as part of a broader push to strengthen accountability and trust on its platform. The announcement was made at Bolt’s inaugural Rider and Passenger Safety Summit in…
Starlink has yet to formally apply to operate in South Africa. While it has rapidly expanded across other African nations, South African-born Elon Musk’s satellite-based internet company Starlink is still to make a formal application to operate locally. This was signalled by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT), in a written Parliamentary response…
Government Gazette confirms official withdrawal of SA’s draft AI policy. (Image source: 123RF) South Africa’s draft National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy, which featured AI-hallucinated references, has officially been withdrawn through a Government Gazette dated 12 June. This, after communications minister Solly Malatsi initially announced its withdrawal in April, citing integrity as the reason behind the…
