[imagesource: Colin Mearns]

In the movies, someone convicted of sex crimes against children goes door to door, alerting their neighbours to the fact that they’re convicted sex offenders.

In the real world, that’s not how things work, and whilst the purpose of South Africa’s Child Protection Register is to protect children from predators in their communities, it’s not so simple.

For one, the register isn’t available to the public, and you may have no idea that somebody living nearby has been convicted of such crimes.

In a segment from this past Sunday, Carte Blanche dug deeper, using the murder of 12-year-old Michaela Williams as a tragic starting point.

With so many sex offenders going on to become repeat offenders, should this register be kept from the public, whereas it’s available to anybody in a country like America?

This one isn’t an easy watch, but it does raise awareness around the issue:

[source:carteblanche]