Do parents taking photos on the sideline, or news media covering a match, fall under POPIA?

• Parents and spectators: POPIA does not apply to processing "in the course of a purely personal or household activity" (s6(1)(a)). A parent photographing their own child for the family album is outside the Act. The exclusion covers only purely personal or household use; it does not cover the club's own photos, website or social media accounts.
• News media: POPIA does not apply to processing solely for journalistic, literary or artistic expression, to the extent that the exclusion is needed to balance privacy with freedom of expression in the public interest (s7(1)). Where a journalist is bound by a code of ethics with adequate safeguards for personal information, that code applies instead of POPIA, and complaints are dealt with under the code (s7(2)).

The club's own match photos, team sheets and posts are not journalism or household use, so the full Act, including the rules on children's information in sections 34 and 35, applies to them.

Source: POPIA (Act 4 of 2013) ss 6-7, 34-35.