Anti-Intimacy Measure Sparks Online Outrage
By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, January 6, 2008
JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 5 -- The lights dimmed. Couples skated purposefully onto the ice. And at the command of an unseen deejay, teenage lips touched in defiance of what even authorities here have grudgingly come to call "the kissing law."
"The law to me is nothing. I don't think it's going to stop anyone," said Bianca Secchia, 14, who participated in the demonstration Saturday and shared another, less political smooch afterward with her boyfriend, Attie Nortje, 17, at the darkened Northgate Ice Arena.
The protest on the northern suburban fringe of Johannesburg was hardly a signal moment in South Africa's storied history of liberation politics. Most of the two dozen young demonstrators settled for scattered group hugs that prosecutors would have struggled to deem criminal even under the new law, which prohibits physical romantic contact involving anyone under 16, regardless of consent.
But the controversy generated by news of the looming event -- first on the social networking site Facebook, then in radio and newspaper reports -- led authorities to announce that they had no intention of arresting or prosecuting anyone for violating a law enacted just three weeks earlier. It amounted to quite a victory for legions of cyberlinked high school students not yet old enough to drive themselves to their own protest.
Strictly speaking, the law criminalized for those under 16 a remarkably broad range of behavior, including mouth-to-mouth contact and any other form of touching that could cause sexual arousal.
In fact, actual prosecutions of consensual encounters between teenagers under 16 are unlikely under the law, requiring explicit approval from the country's top prosecutor. Authorities said the measure was intended to make it easier to prosecute sexual liaisons between adult men and much younger girls, and assaults on the mentally disabled.
Yet news of the law triggered a backlash among thousands of students armed with little more than computers, Facebook accounts and an acute sense of outrage at what they regarded as the clueless behavior of repressive adults. Many teens also posted pictures of themselves engaged in amorous, but largely PG-rated, exchanges.
"We're young. We need to experiment," Natalie Winston, 12, said before the protest here. "When you're 21, you're old already, and ugly."
The organizer, or at least instigator, of the movement was Frances Murray, 14, an exuberant denizen of online-networking sites who has long, dark hair and wears braces and black nail polish. Shortly before Christmas, with just a few weeks to go before she started 10th grade under South Africa's school calendar, she learned about the law from a friend while instant messaging, she said.
"When I checked it out, I thought 'Okay, how am I going to go out and break this law?' " recalled Frances, who dreams of becoming a rock star or, in light of recent events, a political organizer.
After downloading a few news stories, Frances created a Facebook group called "Everybody Against the New Kissing Law." The description of the group included information on the law's effect and a passionate call to action: "Lets band together and stop this law!!!!! It's takin away our freedom of choice and is against Our Human Rights."
Frances said she messaged many of her friends, urging them to take up the cause. After one day, 166 people had joined the group. By the second day, there were 664, and she soon began suggesting in her postings a mass action of some sort.
A couple of news reports took note of the burgeoning outrage on Facebook. As the New Year arrived, postings by other teens began calling for public kissing demonstrations at malls across the nation, at noon every Saturday in January. Frances's group, meanwhile, now has more than 14,000 members.
Many of the protest plans fizzled. One group organizing an event at a mall in a nearby suburb postponed its action for a week. Elsewhere, teens posted messages expressing regret that they could not arrange transportation or were traveling abroad. Amid rumors of teens being fined for breaking the law, some would-be protesters got cold feet.
Armand Stoop, 17, who has a crew cut and a faint goatee, said his 15-year-old girlfriend had called off all kissing since hearing the news.
"She's really law-abiding," Stoop said with a hint of sadness mingled with frustration. "She doesn't want to get me in trouble."
In interviews, authorities said most teens had little to fear. A Justice Department spokesman said of kissing by those under 16, "Technically it is illegal, but obviously those children are not going to be charged."
Assistant Police Commissioner Tertius Geldenhuys said that the reported demonstrations merited no special deployment plans and that officers would take complaints but not initiate action even if they came across necking 14-year-olds. "Your innocent children will not be prosecuted, and the police will not take note of it," he said. "We have much bigger issues to concern ourselves with."
Yet at Northgate Ice Arena, redolent with the heady scent of old socks and young love, the protesters girded themselves with brave words.
"The police are here! The police are here!" Frances exulted when two police officers appeared shortly before the demonstration was due to begin at 1 p.m.
But the officers took no apparent notice of the dimly lit maneuverings on the ice, where Frances grabbed a platonic friend for a symbolic protest hug. Then, as a couple of news cameras trained on her as she stood rink-side afterward, she put her arm around a second platonic friend, Joe Tewson, 14, and kissed his cheek.
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