Online harassment and cyber abuse

What constitutes harassment and cyber abuse?

Any harmful call, message or image that is unwanted, or leaves you feeling harassed, threatened, embarrassed or otherwise victimised. It can come from people you work with or know personally, or from strangers.

  • Being sent messages that are harassing, offensive, derogatory, or threatening
  • Being bombarded by a large volume of messages
  • Being cyber-stalked, or monitored or tracked electronically, or 
  • Having your personally-sensitive information and images used on any online technology without permission, including on emails, social media, blogs, websites or apps.

What you can do

Get support:

Discuss options and safety planning. See the following contacts below. They can respond to family and relationship abuse, as well as any form of online harassment. 

Contact people for students

Contact people for staff

Documentation and responses: 

  • Keep the evidence. Don’t delete the messages. Take screenshots, print out copies, and keep a log of the time and date you received the message, as well as the phone number or email address.

  • If you know the person and feel comfortable doing so, reply to offensive correspondence with a firm but polite message telling them to stop sending you any more emails. If it's someone with whom you must continue to correspond, tell this person to refrain from sending you more messages of the kind that you find offensive. Be specific. Make sure to keep a copy of this email yourself. 

  • Don’t reply to texts, voicemails or emails from people you don’t know.

  • Don’t reply to harassment or threats, it may just prolong the abuse. If a complaint is made to a telecommunications company, replying may delay the process.

  • Don’t retaliate with other harmful communications, it could aggravate the situation and may harm your case should you wish to pursue legal remedies later.

  • If possible, block bullying messages.

  • Staff can use the Discovery Profile privacy settings to change and control the information about them that is publicly visible. Privacy settings can apply to specific sections of your profile or your whole profile.

Report it:

Where there is real or imminent threat to personal safety, call the police on 111 immediately. 

  • If received on a University device, staff are asked to report all incidents involving the receipt of disturbing or obscene calls/messages or incidents of threatening behaviour to the Staff Service Centre, ext 86000.

  • If received on a personal device, report to your telecommunications company who can assist with blocking numbers, sending warning messages to the harasser or suspending them from the network. Visit NetSafe to find out how to make a complaint.

  • If the platform has a published terms and conditions, report the abuse straight away. Popular platforms usually provide a "Report Abuse” button or a "Safety" link you can use to contact the company.

  • If you are being harassed electronically by someone you know,  you may be able to take out a Protection or Restraining Order which covers various forms of communication. For more information contact Shine or see Legal help.

  • If a message threatens to harm a person or property, take it to the police. If someone is in immediate danger call 111.

  • Refer to the University’s webpages on Safe Computing and Security Awareness.

For more advice

NetSafe

An independent non-profit organisation that promotes confident, safe, and responsible use of online technologies. NetSafe can provide more advice on preventing and stopping cyber abuse, including tips on how to hide your search history, and protections available to you under the Digital Communications Act.

Phone: 0508 NETSAFE (0508 638 723), 8am-5pm Monday to Friday
Email: queries@netsafe.org.nz
Web: netsafe.org.nz.

ICON

ICON (In Case of Online Negativity) is a NZ student-developed app available through any web browser at www.icon.org.nz to help teens explore options and troubleshoot online negativity-from nudes, to cyberbullying as well as hate & abuse and practical tips for taking charge of your time online.