Wonder Women: Join the Women’s Network in their Fifa fangirl zone

Carla Donson

This last week marked the beginning of an exciting month for Aotearoa New Zealand as it co-hosts the largest women’s sporting event on the planet with Australia.

The Fifa Women’s World Cup kicked off at Eden Park last Thursday with the Football Ferns facing off against former champions Norway in the first game of what is sure to be a scintillating tournament.

What a game it was! How wonderful to see the largest-ever crowd for a football match in New Zealand, as well as the largest crowd to watch a women’s sporting event.

With 32 teams set to compete and around 30,000 fans arriving, this is not only a boom time for tourism, but it is also a perfect opportunity for Kiwis to experience the on-field skill and athleticism of the most talented female footballers in the world. It deserves our support and every ounce of media coverage.

Rebecca Sowden, former NZ Football Fern, says, “Women’s sport is undergoing a transformative moment with popularity, participation, investment, and standards soaring worldwide and while the average New Zealander can’t affect the results on the pitch, we can contribute to its success off it ... we have the power to ensure the growth of the women’s game as well as creating an unforgettable experience for ourselves.”

Join me and the team from the Women’s Network in our Fifa fangirl zone as we celebrate the tournament. Wear your favourite team colours [black and white for our Football Ferns of course!] and bring your poi along to the Barracks Sports Bar to watch the games. Follow our Women’s Network Whanganui page on Facebook to find out which games we will be cranking up the fan zone for. We had an excellent and lively fan following for the opening game last week.

The Fifa Women’s World Cup also features in our upcoming Winter Wonderfest from August 12-26, along with around 50 other events and activities across the community in a fortnight of festival fun. It aims to warm up your winter with opportunities to connect, empower and inspire.

Download a festival guide at WINTER WONDERFEST (lafiestanz.com) and follow the action on Facebook via Winter Wonderfest Whanganui or Women’s Network Whanganui. Feel free to email me: womnet.whanganui@gmail.com.

Sticking with the transformation theme, Kiwis have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help revolutionise the internet by contributing to the Government’s current consultation on Safer Online Services and Media Platforms which is open for submissions until Monday, July 31. The main pieces of legislation that directly regulate internet content in NZ are over 30 years old.

While their core features are still relevant, such as codes of broadcasting practice, protecting children from age-inappropriate content, and censoring the most abhorrent pieces of content, the current system has long been failing to respond to the rapid advancement of new technologies.

Interventions have been largely reactive and slow to move, meaning that our ability to keep people safe from harmful content is limited by a lack of effective or responsive regulation.

Ultimately, what is being proposed is a new system that will change the way that social media platforms are regulated. The proposal marks a deliberate shift away from the status quo of regulating content, towards regulating platforms.

The chief executive of InternetNZ, Vivien Maidaborn, says, “Recently, we’ve seen increased misogyny, transphobia, xenophobia, and hate speech. This could be minimised by making the platforms take responsibility for it.

“This may be the most important opportunity in a generation to create a safer Internet.”

The Department of Internal Affairs has a host of useful fact sheets about how people of all ages can best keep themselves safe when engaging with a variety of online systems.

■ To find out more about how to make a submission, and to help shape a safer online future for everyone, visit safer online services media platforms consultation - dia.govt.nz.