Pretoria — President Thabo Mbeki is expected to sign into law new amendments to the Films and Publications Act this month compelling all citizens to report anyone involved in the production, selling and in possession of child pornography.

This will make it an offence for computer technicians, Internet cafés and service providers as well as the ordinary person on the street, to overlook cases of child pornography.

The amendments will also increase the minimum sentence from five to ten years.

These are part of efforts to combat the crime such as the one uncovered recently, when police arrested a man in Muldersdrift, west of Johannesburg, early this month.

In what the police described as a major breakthrough, the man was arrested for allegedly producing and distributing pornographic material involving children as young as seven-year-old.

Currently, the 1996 Act - which makes the importation, production, possession and distribution of child pornography an offence - is "vague" allowing those who are witnesses to such "horrific and appalling" crimes to keep quite.

Home Affairs Deputy Minister Malusi Gigaba told reporters in Pretoria today that government was also contemplating regulating Internet service providers, who were keen to help eradicate the scourge.

In this regard, a meeting has been set for today to map the way forward.

The move is expected to tighten the authorities' grip on those who are aware of such upkeep, production and selling of the film and publications of such acts.

"We want to apply the law as strict as possible," said the former youth activist.

Also inserted in the Act is a clause calling for the arrest of those South Africans who commit or trade in child pornography elsewhere in the globe. "This means if the person is suspected of being involved in child pornography outside of South Africa, we can arrest him. It does away with the long-winded extradition process," he said.

Mr Gigaba also hinted that government would set up a hotline in this regard by November, while considering setting up a "24-hrs online policing forum".

This a couple of months after "reactivating" its task team on child pornography.

Meanwhile government says it will hold a national conference on child pornography next May.