What is online abuse and harassment?

What is online abuse?

​​Online ​abuse and harassment can occur in various online environments, including social media, instant messaging apps, email, and text messages. It can involve threats, embarrassment, humiliation, ​false allegations, or expressions of discriminatory attitudes and beliefs.

Online abuse and harassment can be extremely distressing, so it’s crucial to understand what you can do to keep yourself safe and the steps you can take if you are abused and harassed online.

Anyone threatening to physically hurt you or damage your property is breaking the law.

If you are concerned about the immediate safety of yourself or someone else, call 111 (tel:111)straight away.

What does online abuse look like?

Online abuse and harassment can also be known as ​cyberbullying(/bullying/cyberbullying), cyber abuse, and cyber stalking. Often involving being sent repeated messages that are offensive, derogatory, threatening or unauthorized sharing of your private information, such as your intimate images, referred to as​ image-based abuse(/online-abuse-and-harassment/image-based-abuse).

Receiving unwanted messages or seeing repeated posts about you that leave you feeling frightened, upset, harassed, threatened, or embarrassed is not OK and there is support and advice available to help you deal with this issue.

If you are experiencing mobile phone harassment via repeated abusive calls or text messages, you can also talk to your telecommunications provider as there may be steps they can take to help manage this.

Is online harassment against the law?

The Harmful Digital Communications Act (HDCA)(/our-work/helpline-services/the-harmful-digital-communications-act) of New Zealand aims to deter, prevent, and mitigate harms caused by digital communications. Netsafe plays a pivotal role in assessing harmful digital communication reports and offering solutions and is open seven days a week to give you free and confidential support.

What to do if you're experiencing online harassment

• Report it to Netsafe. Our team offers expert advice and assistance, guiding you through options to resolve the situation.
• If the abuse is happening on social media, utilise the platform's safety tools to manage and report harmful messages. For further guidance, refer to our social media guides below or click here(/social-media-safety).

You can contact Netsafe seven days a week for free, confidential and non-judgmental advice about an online issue impacting you or someone you know.

Report online (https://report.netsafe.org.nz/hc/en-au/requests/new)Email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])Text 'Netsafe' to 4282 (sms:4282?body=Netsafe)Live chat support Call 0508 638 723 8am-8pm weekdays, 9am-5pm weekends (tel:0508638723)New Zealanders overseas can call +64 9 666 0840 (tel:+6496660840)

Further support

Experiencing online abuse and harassment can be distressing. For additional support you can contact these confidential services: