Netsafe’s Sean Lyons asks a classroom full of Year 7 and 8 students at Epsom’s Kohia Terrace School to clap if they own a phone.
Most put their hands together.
That gels with a recent survey of 500 parents that found 96 per cent of Kiwi kids will own a smartphone by age 16.
But the same research found more than two-thirds of caregivers don’t know where to turn for help with phone and online safety.
Just under a third say their children had an unwanted experience online, typically bullying.
That’s why Netsafe - where Lyons serves as chief safety officer - has teamed with 2degrees to launch the “Your First Phone” programme.
Parents can pick up a Your First Phone box - which looks like the sort of box a smartphone usually comes in, but it’s empty. The idea is that most kids get a hand-me-down phone from their parents. That second-hand phone, plus a sim card (or a new phone), can be placed in the box to provide some gravitas.
It’s all pitched in kid-friendly language. Sharing your password is like sharing your toothbrush, Lyons tells the class.
Afterwards, he tells the Herald he hopes kids will learn about the fundamentals of securing a device.
But, more broadly, “also thinking about who they might be in contact with and the fact that some people misrepresent themselves, the fact that some people try to harass and bully other people, and the fact that some people might try to engage young people in a scam. We often think of scams for older people, [but] anybody who uses technology can be contacted in that way. It’s about being aware of what to look out for and what to do if you find yourself in a difficult situation”.
2degrees chief corporate affairs officer Emma-Kate Greer says: “As a major telco, we recognised we had a responsibility to support parents and children to have these conversations about being safe online. I’m also a mum to three children aged 9, 10 and 12 - prime First Phones territory - so it was also an issue we were navigating at home.”
But it’s not always so easy to know how to approach the topic.
“We wanted to create a really nice unboxing experience for kids that stimulates the right conversation,” Greer says.
The box includes a “Child and Parent Agreement” to sign consisting of 10 good behaviour pledges. You follow a ‘swipe right’ instruction to release it from the packaging (’swipe right’ being app shorthand for ‘accept’). There’s also a page for families to add their own rules. It might be all phones out of bedrooms and in the lounge by 7pm, Greer says.
There are supporting materials on Netsafe and 2degrees’ websites around general tips, plus how to use the parental controls, screen time and safety features on an iPhone or Android.
The tips have also been used by UK grime artist Scrufizzer in a new track to promote the ‘good tings and bad tings’ of getting your first phone. ‘Ting’ is a reference to both phone alerts and a play on ‘thing’. The programme also features the positives of smart devices. “Your phone is a ting of beauty”, the box says.
The campaign will launch on Netsafe and 2degrees’ websites, and in 2degrees stores, from this Thursday.
National has promised to ban cellphones in schools during its first 100 days in office (barring exceptional circumstances).
“The internet doesn’t go to sleep when the school bell rings,” Lyons says.
“This programme is about helping young people, wherever they use their phones.”
Like a number of schools, Kohia Terrace already puts heavy restrictions on smartphones.
Phones have to stay in bags during class time, lunchtime and break times. They’re also banned from social media. They can only be used immediately before or after school.
When connected to the school’s Wi-Fi, or when using a school email, students’ phones are also covered by web filters and other security systems supplied by Crown agency N4L (Network For Learning).
Ahead of the election, Netsafe also had some changes in the works.
Fresh after moving the home user and small business-focused Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert NZ) under the GCSB’s National Cyber Security Centre, the GCSB and then-Public Service Minister Andrew Little sent a paper to Cabinet that proposed shifting Netsafe funding to fall under the Department of Internal Affairs.
That would be quite a change of gears for Netsafe - the approved agency for the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 (HDCA). The non-profit currently draws its funding (around $4 million per year) from contracts with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice, corporate donors and philanthropy.
Retired District Court judge and cyber specialist David Harvey told the Herald that he did not want to see Netsafe funding fall under the DIA.
“One of the major principles behind the HDCA was to keep its administration separate and distinct from the state. That is why an NGO [non-Government organisation] is the approved agency,” Harvey said. A DIA-led regime could undermine freedom of expression.
Key findings from the OnePicture survey of more than 500 parents with children and teens aged 8-16:
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
The telco says the service will quickly expand over 2025.