Schools and screens.
We’re calling on the Minister of Education, to make immediate changes to better protect our kids when they are online at school.
Michael Morrah Investigates, school filtering in New Zealand, July 2024. Watch here.
Shouldn’t students be safe online in school, when using devices for learning?
In today’s digital age, our primary school students in Aotearoa are navigating a world of both incredible learning opportunities and significant risks. While the internet can be a powerful educational tool, it also exposes our kids to harmful content, cyberbullying, and online predators. And there is a significant gap in terms of how school leaders and educators are equipped to deal with this. They need more support, and better filtering to ensure students arent exposed to harmful, violent, sexual content, during school hours. The UN Rights of the Child state that children should be safe online at school.
This is why we’re calling for robust and effective online safety measures in schools.
According to the NZ Classifications Office :
+ 67% of NZ youth have seen porn
+ 1 in 4 saw it before age 9
+ 46% of popular pornographic material viewed by New Zealanders contains incest themes,
+ 35% features non-consensual acts
+ a staggering 69% of young people aged 14-17 have witnessed violent or aggressive content.
Exposure to such content can cause immediate trauma and have lasting effects, shaping how young people view relationships and consent. This material normalizes violence against women, children, and even animals.
The evolution of digital media in the last two decades demands a fresh regulatory approach, one that prioritizes the well-being of our most vulnerable: our tamariki and rangatahi.Given our nation’s distressing rates of sexual abuse against women and children, it’s clear we need pr eventative action. Protecting our young people requires creating a safer digital landscape, and that starts with the Ministry of Education taking immediate action to ensure schools are safe environments where harmful content cannot reach our tamariki.
School policies around digital images
With the rapid emergence of AI, which is unregulated in Aotearoa, we are seeing dramatic increases in the use of AI to create sexual images of children. These are called deepfakes, and can easily be done using deepfake websites or nudify apps. The Crimes Act and the HDCA can help once harm occurs, but we need a preventative response.
It is not longer appropriate or safe for schools to publish images of students online, due to the lack of industry regulation we have in New Zealand.
In May 2025, the Privacy Commission put out advice around the sharing of children’s image. This is an essential read for school leaders and educators. Read here.
As key decisions about online safety, filtering and the use and publication of children’s images resides with Boards, this is also essential for Board members to understand and take strong and decisive action to ensure the safety of children in their care.
Holly Brooker spoke to Chris Chang, Breakfast Show in June 2025.
