Pacific youth demand voice in shaping online safety, digital policies

Pacific youth are calling for tougher online safeguards after a nationwide Save the Children (STC) survey identified safety gaps in New Zealand’s digital landscape.

The joint research conducted by Save the Children and NetSafe involved about 1000 tamariki and rangatahi aged eight to 17, asking them what a safer internet looks like to them. It was found that 64 per cent feel safe online only when parents help them avoid harm, while more than 750 respondents want tighter ad controls, stronger filters for harmful content, and quicker takedowns of inappropriate material.

Mazaiah, a 17-year-old Pasifika youth and one of 10 STC Generation Hope ambassadors, actively promoted this survey to raise awareness about the importance of online safety, especially for children.

“As social media becomes more ingrained in our daily lives, especially for young people like myself, there are many risks that come with that,” Mazaiah says.

“Children can be exposed to negative online experiences, such as harmful body image standards or expectations set by influencers, and a lot of those pressures damage our mental health.”

She says that discussions around internet safety for youth often prioritise older generations’ perspectives rather than considering the insights of rangatahi themselves. It is crucial, Mazaiah argues, for young voices to be heard and for youth to participate in conversations about their own online safety.

“There has been some policy implementation on social media platforms, such as Instagram where they've tried age restrictions, but I do believe it would only actively work in the short term.

“It’s really important that our voices of young people are amplified into this conversation to ensure that we are exposed to internet safety. I can say for certain that we know how to utilise social media more than how older generations use social media nowadays.”

Mazaiah, centre-left, at parliament as part of Save The Children’s Generation Hope youth ambassadors. Photo/Supplied

‘Responsible digital citizens’

Leah Damm, a doctoral candidate at the University of Auckland, welcomes the STC’s child‑centred approach, which counters the misconceptions that “kids don’t know what they’re doing”.

Damm’s current research focuses on the experiences of Pacific women aged 18 to 44 with social media, particularly Instagram. She says that research like the STC’s survey creates safer and more accessible digital spaces for children.

“What’s clear from the survey is that kids know not only sort of about these spaces, but they know what makes them feel safe online. So that's having support around them and having more control over what they're seeing and doing,” she says.

Damm promotes a holistic approach to online safety that takes into account how social media shapes young people’s views of themselves and the world. She insists that the focus should not solely be on overt harms, such as violent content.

“Part of keeping our young people safe is helping them navigate those influences and teach them how to push back on some of these unhealthy beliefs as well. A big part of that work means that we've got to move past this idea that social media isn't real, that things that happen online can cause real harm.

“When we start sort of coming at it from that sort of approach, we're not just focussing on protecting kids from harm, we're also teaching them about being responsible digital citizens.”

Watch Leah Damm’s full interview below.

More Pasifika youth at the table

Mazaiah believes it’s important to acknowledge the unique experience of Pacific youth and the intersectional differences in how they engage with social media. She says many social media platforms are designed from a Western perspective, lacking inclusivity.

“It’s very focused on what Western viewpoints are and how social media should be used in that way. So it makes it very difficult for myself as a Pasifika youth to relate to certain media content and be included within the conversation,” Mazaiah says.

“So it's really important that other voices of other cultures like Pasifika youth are heard and amplified to ensure that social media brings equality for youth and to limit cultural differences, of course.”

Mazaiah encourages parents and educators to take proactive steps towards online safety, to create an environment where “children can freely enjoy the benefits of the internet without negative risk being exposed to them”.

“It's important to listen to our voices, what we think should be implemented on social media, and to understand the challenges that we face because a lot of these older generations don't actually see what we see as young people on social media.

“It's just all about bringing up the youth voice within social media and the conversation.”