Now that students have headed back to school, Police have a message for our young people: Kia whakaute...respect your mates, don't share their nudes.
"We are seeing an increase in reports of young people sharing nudes online of their friends, other young people from their schools or teens they don't even know," says Detective Senior Sergeant Kepal Richards from the NZ Police Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand team.
These images, when shared on many of the social media platforms, get reported to the United States-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) as they are identified on these platforms as child exploitation material which is illegal to produce, possess or distribute.
NCMEC provides that information as a Cyber tip notification to New Zealand Police, Department of Internal Affairs or New Zealand Customs Service to investigate.
"While we advocate young people don't share naked images of themselves, we know it happens," says Detective Senior Sergeant Richards.
"If you receive a nude of another young person, don't be part of the cycle and post it somewhere else. Delete the message, be kind, and think about how you would feel if the image was of you".
"We know that when a young person discovers a naked image of themselves has been sent to often large numbers of their peers it can have a significant detrimental effect on their mental health."
The OCEANZ team receives multiple NCMEC Cyber tips each week related to this scenario. These are reviewed by investigators and appropriate action taken on a case-by-case basis.
The action taken by Police can range from a welfare visit to the young people involved, discussions with school staff or in some cases it may be appropriate that charges are considered depending on the type of material and the circumstances in which they were produced or distributed online.
WHERE TO REPORT OFFENDING:
NEW ZEALAND POLICE
105 (non-Emergency)
111 (Emergency)
Netsafe
Text 'Netsafe' to 4282
