Net nastiness
Online abuse rockets for New Zealanders during lockdowns
The ‘‘team of 5 million’’ may have stayed safe from Covid-19 during alert levels 3 and 4 but a new survey reveals many suffered more online harm during this time than before the lockdown.
The biggest increases in harmful digital content sent during alert levels 3 and 4 involved the most serious types, including encouraging people to kill themselves, revenge porn, and threats of physical harm, according to Netsafe’s representative survey of more than 1100 people.
About 40 per cent of those surveyed – or 484 – received at least one harmful digital communication during the previous 12 months.
Of those, 41 per cent experienced it during and just after the seven-week period from March 26 to May 14, when the Government asked people to stay at home under Covid-19 alert levels 3 and 4.
Those with long-term disabilities and members of the LGBTQI community were more likely to suffer harm during this period compared to normal times.
More men (46 per cent) than women (36 per cent) experienced digital harm during lock down than before.
Of the physically threatening or intimidating online communications received in the last year, more than one third were sent during the seven-week lockdown.
The rise in online harm during lockdown was likely a result of the parallel increases in stress and access to the internet, Netsafe chief executive Martin Cocker said.
Calls to the not-for-profit online safety organisation increased by 60 per cent, and website traffic grew by 160 per cent – a phenomenon experienced by similar organisations in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Cocker said a review of legislation available to regulate the online space would help identify and address gaps in service.
Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson said the results were ‘‘extremely sad’’ but not surprising.
‘‘New Zealand does have a dark underbelly of bullying and violence,’’ Robinson said.
He said it was well established bullying could have profound negative impacts on people’s mental health and wellbeing.’’
The online space created its own significant risks and made online bullying easier for perpetrators because there was less accountability.
‘‘People don’t have to eyeball the person they are bullying in the same way, so there’s a degree of separation from the consequences.’’
Rainbow Youth chief executive Frances Arns said the rise in harm for LGTBQI people during the lockdown periods was shocking, but also not surprising.
‘‘There’s research that shows queer and trans and non-binary people disproportionately experience physical harm and verbal abuse compared to the general public.’’
Arns said the Netsafe results showed physical violence had migrated to the digital realm in another form, as people were confined to their homes.
Netsafe has statutory responsibility under the Harmful Digital Communications Act to support victims of harmful online content and pursuing a remedy for victims, such as having the content removed from an internet platform.
In more extreme cases victims can take the matter to police, but the bar for a criminal investigation under the act is very high, Cocker said.
Islamic Women’s Council spokeswoman Anjum Rahman said she would like to see some research on the perpetrators of online harm.
‘‘ If you want to reduce this stuff, you need to know who is doing it and where it’s coming from.’’
Rahman said the process to have online abuse adequately addressed and perpetrators held accountable needed to be simplified for victims.
New Zealand has multiple laws and agencies with responsibility for online harm – including Netsafe, the police and the office of the chief censor – but some victims say none of them have enough ‘‘bite’’ to make take action against perpetrators of online harm.
‘‘If you want to reduce this stuff, you need to know who is doing it and where it’s coming from.’’ Anjum Rahman