Twenty-nine organisations are joining forces today to mark 2016’s Safer Internet Day in New Zealand as Kiwis report an increasing number of incidents involving internet harms, says online safety and security organisation NetSafe.

Safer Internet Day is celebrated worldwide to encourage the safe and positive use of the internet and digital technologies, especially among families and young people. New Zealand’s Safer Internet Day is being coordinated by NetSafe.

In 2016, 29 organisations that work with Kiwi internet users across the country are coming together to celebrate the day, promoting digital safety and security messages to customers, staff and stakeholders. The full list of supporting organisations can be viewed online at https://www.netsafe.org.nz/safer-internet-day/#Supporters and are included below.

“Safer Internet Day is a global event that celebrates the positive work going on every day of the year to make the internet a safer place for all users. We’re pleased to have so many organisations supporting the event in New Zealand. This highlights how creating a safer internet is a shared responsibility,” said Martin Cocker, NetSafe’s Executive Director.

NZ Partners working towards a safer internet

Organisations supporting SID 2016 are promoting positive online safety messages and getting behind four activities on the day:

1. Project Positive national compliments campaign.

Project Positive is being run by young NZers with support from Sticks ‘n Stones, NetSafe
Facebook and Google. The goal for the day is to share as many compliments online as
possible.

Students across NZ have created compliments for use on the day. People can participate in the campaign by:

– sharing a compliment using Project Positive’s graphics (download them from
https://www.netsafe.org.nz/share-a-compliment-from-project-positive/); or

– post a photograph of themselves with a compliment on social media.

Twitter, Google and Facebook are all providing support in the form of targeted promotion to ensure the compliments campaign gets the maximum amount of exposure online.

You can read more about Project Positive on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/HeyAwesome

2. Staying Safe Online resource

NetSafe has worked with NZ’s leading online companies to develop advice about staying safe online using their services. These resources are designed as “self help” guides to promote positive action by individuals to improve their own online safety, as well as providing valuable support for those with duty of care responsibility. The advice can be accessed from Tuesday 9th February at https://www.netsafe.org.nz/staying-safe-online/

3. So you got naked online resource

NetSafe is publishing a resource that provides children, young people and parents with advice and strategies to support them in the event of sexting incidents. It promotes positive action by individuals to improve their own online safety, as well as providing valuable support for those with duty of care responsibility. This will be available for download on Tuesday 9th February at https://www.netsafe.org.nz/so-you-got-naked-online/

4. Digital Challenges Report

To mark Safer Internet Day, NetSafe has published a report on the full range of online
challenges that New Zealanders faced in 2015. The report can be downloaded from https://www.netsafe.org.nz/safer-internet-day/

The Auckland-based non-profit handled over 8500 incidents in 2014 and recorded over $13m lost to a wide variety of online scams and computer security issues (up 68% on 2014). The report also looks at other harms that Kiwi internet users can suffer including the emotional impact of online harassment and bullying and privacy concerns around the loss of data and identity information.

Highlights from the report include:

– More than one in ten of the incidents that NetSafe handled in 2015 involved bullying or
online harassment and reports were received from young people and adults alike;

– NetSafe recorded over 365 privacy related reports during the year;

– The average financial loss reached $13,000 and the largest reported loss was $2.1m.

You can read more about Safer Internet Day at https://www.netsafe.org.nz/safer-internet-day/ and follow activities that will take place around the world using the hashtag #SID2016 (https://twitter.com/search?q=%23SID2016).

We encourage others to join NetSafe in creating a better internet find
out how to participate in next year’s events at https://www.netsafe.org.nz/safer-internet-day/#getinvolved

Source: NetSafe

More at netsafe.org.nz