NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Business

NZ's top five internet fears - and a killer security tip

Chris Keall
By Chris Keall
Technology Editor/Senior Business Writer·NZ Herald·
30 Jan, 2019 08:15 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Important message for New Zealanders to be safer online / Internet NZ

Some 92 per cent of New Zealanders are concerned about young children accessing inappropriate content online, new research reveals.

InternetNZ - the non-profit that administers .nz domains - commissioned Colmar Brunton to survey 1859 consumers and business people and found that 93 per cent of Kiwis go online every day.

And 90 per cent think that, on balance, the positives of the internet outweigh its negatives.

Still, those negatives prey on our minds. The top five concerns:

Source: InternetNZ
Source: InternetNZ
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

But although New Zealanders are aware of cyber-perils, not many are taking steps to secure themselves or their data.

Only 45 per cent of us regularly backup our data.

And although nearly all use passwords, only 30 per cent use two-factor authentication or"2FA" - which usually involves code being sent to your cellphone on top of the requirement to enter a password.

Earlier, InternetNZ policy advisor Ben Creet said a major security problem was that people used the same password to log on to multiple services - meaning if one provider got hacked, their personal details were vulnerable on every website they accessed.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Creet says if you use a relatively new computer, its operating system will protect you against viruses and malware. The InternetNZ man says if you only have a limited budget, spend it on a password manager like LastPass.

Password management software automatically generates a random password for every site you access and auto-fills, meaning you only have to remember one master password (and given that one of the safest ways to make a password uncrackable is to make a password long and include numbers, a good tip is to make it a phrase you can easily remember but will be unguessable to others such as MyDreamGolfHandicapIs5).

Blocking X-rated content

In terms of combating inappropriate content, the Department of Internal Affairs has a filter installed at all major New Zealand ISPs, aimed primarily at blocking child exploitation sites.

And most internet providers also offer a service that blocks X-rated material.

Discover more

Media and marketing

300,000 sports pirates: Sky TV and Spark at odds over crackdown

30 Sep 12:12 AM
Business

Republican's bill proposes porn tax to pay for Trump's wall

22 Jan 08:00 PM
Business

Fyre fallout: NZ social media influencers risk big fines

28 Jan 08:05 PM
Business

Taranaki oil company boss says Viagogo ripped him off

28 Jan 09:52 PM

However, with so much adult content saturating the internet, and even seeping into mainstream sites like Pinterest, it can be a game of Whack-a-Mole.

Many filters also block the VPNs that some parents use to access offshore entertainment content, such as the US versions of iTunes or Netflix.

Lower tech alternatives include unplugging your wi-fi router at a designated time of night, and talking to your children about what they're likely to encounter online - so that when they see the bad stuff, they know that it's bad.

InternetNZ outreach and engagement director Andrew Cushen says the survey is a reminder for families to talk with each other about the different types of content found online, and to talk about what to do if they come across any upsetting content. "We need to ensure that people of all ages feel safe on the Internet," he says.

Sky TV has suggested a site-blocking regime, which would follow legal moves in the UK and elsewhere that require ISPs to block certain sites. The pay-TV broadcaster has pirated content in its sites, but site-blocking is also used in the war on inappropriate content.

However, major internet service providers Spark, 2degrees and Vocus (owner of Orcon and Slingshot) are not onboard with site-blocking. All have told the Herald it is not their job to police the internet, and that the practices would be costly, impractical and unlikely to work.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In August, NZ First MP and Children's Minister Tracy Martin said New Zealand should follow the United Kingdom in bringing in age restrictions for online pornography and blocking websites which refuse to comply.

However, Justice Minister Andrew Little was lukewarm on such a sweeping measure, saying only that he was open to ideas on different regulatory approaches.

Agencies who can help

Cyberbullying is covered under the Harmful Digital Communications Act (2015) - a piece of legislation recently in the news as National MP Sarah Dowie's texts to colleague Jami-Lee Ross came to authorities' attention.

If you want to make a complaint under the Act, start with Netsafe, the government agency that can advocate on your behalf with police, Facebook, Twitter and others.

If you're hit or hijacked by malware, contact CERT NZ, the government agency recently set up as a kind of triage unit for consumers or businesses suffering cyber-problems.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Business

Premium
Currency

Kiwi dollar rises 7.5% as US dollar wanes under global shifts

18 Jun 03:59 AM
Premium
Business

Little Island pleaded for lifeline before going into liquidation

18 Jun 01:56 AM
Airlines

Israel to begin bringing back citizens stranded abroad

18 Jun 01:39 AM

Audi offers a sporty spin on city driving with the A3 Sportback and S3 Sportback

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Business

Premium
Kiwi dollar rises 7.5% as US dollar wanes under global shifts

Kiwi dollar rises 7.5% as US dollar wanes under global shifts

18 Jun 03:59 AM

Concerns about the US dollar have seen other currencies gain, including the NZ dollar.

Premium
Little Island pleaded for lifeline before going into liquidation

Little Island pleaded for lifeline before going into liquidation

18 Jun 01:56 AM
 Israel to begin bringing back citizens stranded abroad

Israel to begin bringing back citizens stranded abroad

18 Jun 01:39 AM
Premium
Hansells owes $10m to staff, ANZ, IRD and company linked to the Hart family

Hansells owes $10m to staff, ANZ, IRD and company linked to the Hart family

18 Jun 01:34 AM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP