Netsafe reports sex-photo threats are rife

About one in 20 Kiwis have had someone share intimate or sexual pictures or videos of them online without their permission, or have been threatened with that, according to research commissioned by cyber safety organisation Netsafe. Of those, more than half said that it had actually happened to them.

Netsafe chief executive Martin Cocker believed the research findings were credible, despite the seemingly very high level of imagebased online sexual abuse they suggested.

The findings were based on a survey of 1001 adults by Colmar Brunton that was designed to capture a representative slice of the population.

Of those surveyed, 49 reported threatened or actual abuse.

‘‘It is possible the numbers might be slightly skewed by the online methodology – the sort of people who are online and therefore the experiences they might have,’’ Cocker said.

‘‘It might skew the numbers a little bit but it wouldn’t hugely impact it as far as we could see.

‘‘Two years in a row we have had very similar numbers for the percentage who have said they have had images shared, which is about 3 per cent, and it seems to be fairly consistent with similar research overseas.’’

Cocker acknowledged Netsafe had ‘‘skin in the game’’ as it is contracted by the Government to provide a service through which people can report breaches of the Harmful Digital Communications Act, which was passed in 2015, and seek mediation.

It was receiving about 60 complaints a week, he said.

Many of the criminal prosecutions under the Act in its first 18 months involved imagebased sexual abuse, Netsafe reported.

Cocker said ‘‘typical’’ incidents involved sexual abuse reports from women that tended to involve an ex-partner trying to ‘‘maintain control, blackmail them or as retaliation for leaving the relationship’’.

‘‘Reports from men tend to be about sextortion, where they’ve engaged in sexual activity online with strangers, which has been recorded and they are then being extorted for money.’’

However, the 49 victims included nine who believed threats had been made against them or images shared ‘‘as a joke’’, and four cases where images had been shared ‘‘by accident’’ or as a result of a hack.