The agency briefed Paul Goldsmith, Minister of Justice.
“We are seeing a dramatic increase in the amount of stalking and harassment online, which can lead to physical and sexual violence,” Netsafe chief executive Brent Carey said.
“At the moment harassment is covered in a piecemeal way, across different pieces of legislation, including the Harassment Act, the Family Violence Act and the HDCA,” he added.
“Since 2020, successive Ministers of Justice have acknowledged the legislation needs to be reviewed, but work has stalled. We recommend you add stalking and harassment to your law reform programme.”
Netsafe has urged Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith to add stalking and harassment to his law reform programme. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Netsafe also said governments had been sluggish in addressing ways social media glamourised anti-social behaviour.
“There is concern that social media is contributing to youth offending, through youth using social media platforms (such as TikTok) to share their offending and make themselves famous with followers.”
Carey added: “To date, no one in Government has taken responsibility for understanding or addressing the issue. Like many social media issues, this is falling between the cracks of individual agency responsibility.”
He said the Ministry of Justice should team up with Netsafe to break the cycle of offending and commission research and rehabilitation programmes to better understand how social media influenced youth offending.
Youth harms
Carey, in a briefing to Education Minister Erica Stanford, said Netsafe had noticed a dramatic increase in sextortion.
And it said online platforms could exacerbate risks around youth suicide, body image issues, posting and boasting about criminal activities, and the spread of misinformation and disinformation.
Netsafe said educators should update and improve online safety and social media literacy for students.
The agency also recommended the ministry fund research to address content that sexualised children or depicted self-harm and suicide.
In another sign of how far-reaching the impacts of cybercrime and cyberbullying could be, Netsafe sent a briefing to Minister of Mental Health, Matt Doocey.
It said cyberbullying, stalking, and image-based sexual abuse could quickly become a mental health issue, especially for young people.
“There are also strong links between heavy social media use and increased risk of depression and anxiety. Many of the calls to the Netsafe hotline concern psychological, emotional and physical harm.”
The agency said a lack of action and funding in this area could lead to tragic consequences.
“Sadly, Netsafe takes on average 8 to 10 suicide contacts per week and increasingly has become involved in coronial matters,” the agency added.
“Through the coronial process it has been recommended that Netsafe take a more active role in awareness, education and prevention when it comes to youth suicide and social media issues.”
Netsafe CEO Brent Carey has described the consequences of online harm and a lack of action by authorities in multiple briefings to new ministers. Photo / NZ Herald
Netsafe, in the briefing to Doocey, said one possibly useful way to help was through public warnings about harmful trending social media challenges that could result in death.
“Unfortunately our current funding envelope and government contracts have no linkages to suicide prevention and coronial matters or anything to do with the health sector.”
Justice and education ‘not consulted’
One briefing pointed to communication meltdowns which Netsafe argued had undermined several public agencies.
In a briefing to Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden, Netsafe said it had Ministry of Justice funding to carry out approved agency functions under the HDCA until 2026.
And it had Ministry of Education funding to give support and resources to schools and kura until June 30 this year.
At the end of the last parliamentary term, the previous Government decided to transfer Netsafe’s contracts with Justice and Education to Internal Affairs.
“We understand this came about because of work to align cybersecurity across government.”
But the agency told van Velden: “As neither Netsafe, MOJ or MOE were consulted, the consequences and effects of this transfer have not been properly analysed or considered.”
Netsafe asked the new Government to reverse that decision and ensure Internal Affairs was not taking on functions for which it was “ill-suited”.
Netsafe estimates cybercrime is costing New Zealanders easily more than $300 million a year. Photo / Lev Dolgachov
Netsafe also sent a briefing to Andrew Bayly, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
“The volume and sophistication of scams is escalating, so much so that it is becoming increasingly difficult for citizens to distinguish between scams and legitimate communications.”
Netsafe told Bayly financial losses from online frauds and scams were estimated at $35 million in 2022 but police data showed 93 per cent of fraud and deception and 97 per cent of cybercrimes were not reported.
