How to deal with concerns about internet
InternetNZ’s annual research has revealed how we’re feeling about the online world, including new stats on what’s concerning us most. Looking at how we spend our time online, it’s safe to say we’re still in the clutches of social media.
Despite a slight decline in our daily Instagram and Tiktok use, 48% of us spend the bulk of our personal time online scrolling the socials, hungry for information and stimulus. But it’s a love/ hate relationship — we absolutely can’t stand a lot of things about the online spaces we frequent.
73% of us say we’re either very or extremely concerned about children being exposed to harmful content. That number has barely shifted since we began taking these surveys six years ago and the problem still remains.
You might have seen the recent Senate hearing in the US where social media bosses, including Mark Zuckerberg, fronted up to families whose loved ones had fallen prey to the dangers of their platforms. Courtroom theatrics aside, nothing can be done here in Aotearoa until governments, including our own, require change to protect people through regulation.
The first steps towards doing this have been taken via the Safer online services media platforms (SOSMP) proposal and the new Government needs to pick this up and consider the critical next steps for this important inquiry into safer online spaces.
Misleading or wrong information is another thing New Zealanders are worried about in this latest research.
In the last year, the number of us who are extremely or very concerned about misleading or wrong information online grew significantly to 65%. Disinformation has been complicating our enjoyment of the internet since Covid, and it disproportionately harms our most vulnerable and marginalised groups.
At InternetNZ, we think the government must enable the funding of local communities, so they can develop the skills needed to recognise disinformation and deal with the impact of it at whānau, and local community level.
Education is imperative, and if misand disinformation is ubiquitous, people need to have the tools and knowledge to recognise and respond to it swiftly. It is the equivalent to having education about how to use roads safely — fundamental to a safe and inclusive community.
More also needs to be done by our new Government to ensure what is illegal offline can also be adequately acted upon online, in order to combat the harms of mis/disinformation. Two letters on the tips of everyone’s tongues in 2023 were “AI”. We put a new question in the research this year to find out how we feel about AI as a country. 42% of respondents answered that they are more concerned than excited, while only 11% said they were more excited than concerned about the rapidly growing technology. 40% reported feeling a mixture of both excitement and concern. These reservations are understandable, as the rise in deep fakes and other AI-generated content means New Zealanders don’t currently know whether they can trust AI.
New Zealanders need to see leadership from our government, like other governments all around the world, in helping us to decide what our approach to AI will be, how we manage risks and harms and embrace opportunities.
Places like the UK and the European Union have started introducing rules or guidelines to manage AI and the New Zealand government needs to consider that too. How to appropriately manage risk through responsible AI governance, whether that takes the form of principles, guidelines, or regulation, is important. We know that there’s an exciting and useful side to AI too, so let’s work together to minimise the risks and embrace the opportunity.
Another new question this year revealed that just over one in three (37%) New Zealanders think the internet has a positive impact on our cultural beliefs and values. We’re able to express our national identity more and more online now — celebrating fairness, access to resources, our indigenous culture, and our tangata whenua. In fact, major industries depend on it, like tourism. 25% of us disagree, saying that the internet has a negative impact on our culture. What an amazing, audacious goal it would be to create the guidelines and safety framework for the internet in Aotearoa so we all feel it contributes to the strong cultural context we live in.
As we live more of our lives online (27% of New Zealanders spend five hours or more a day), we’re looking for ways to get the best of the internet and to drag and drop the rest into the trash.
It is good to see that more of us (48%) say we’d report harmful content to NetSafe, up significantly from last year. If we can trust the government to act on our behalf where the platforms won’t, and equip ourselves with tools, skills, and knowledge to recognise harm and disinformation, we’ll go a long way in making the internet better in Aotearoa.