Online harm is on the rise and many New Zealanders think the internet is more dangerous than it was five years ago, according to research from Netsafe.
Ahead of its first internet safety week, Netsafe published a Colmar Brunton survey of 808 people, showing 52 percent of respondents experienced some form of online harm in 2020.
Chief executive Martin Cocker says it's no surprise people are warier of the internet now.
"I'm not surprised they feel pessimistic about the direction of travel of the internet because every year people are having more negative experiences," he told Newshub on Monday.
Shockingly, Cocker says more than 100,000 New Zealanders were victims of online image-based sexual abuse - having someone share their nudes without consent - in the last year.
He says the "incredibly harmful experience" needs to be stopped - and an amendment to the Harmful Digital Communications Act is on its way to do so.
"That aspect of the act is being strengthened because that is an incredibly harmful experience people are having in too high numbers."
The amendment, which is currently before select committees, would make it illegal to share naked images of someone without their consent. To do so would be punishable by up to three years in prison, and the current requirement to prove the sharer intended to cause harm would be scrapped.
