Martin Cocker
Executive Director
NetSafe New Zealand


In a small village recipient of ICT4D, the first computer is connected to the Internet. A world of opportunity opens up. The villagers now have access to knowledge, finances, goods, markets, and opportunities for political participation that were previously beyond their reach. At the same time, they have been connected to a world of extreme images, fraud, harassment, predators, and crime. The success of the ICT4D project now sits delicately poised. Will the overall impact of access to ICT be positive or negative? Will the villagers continue to embrace the opportunity, or will negative experiences turn them away from ICT?

NetSafe is the cybersafety organisation that aims is to swing the balance in favour of the positive by preparing people for the negative. Of course, ICT itself is neither inherently positive or inherently negative. ICT is used in both positive and negative ways. We can say with certainty that access to ICT is exposing people to new risks, and that if left unchecked, will have a negative influence on user confidence and technology usage. This poses the question – how can we address the issues of safety and security in a way that positively promotes the adoption of ICT?

What is cybersafety?

It is not within our capability to make cyberspace safe. Cyberspace spans jurisdictional boundaries and technology constantly evolves. We must instead focus our attention on the users and the local environment in which they operate.Compare cyberspace with the Ocean. We can not access the bounty and opportunity of the ocean without accepting some risk. We do not control the ocean, so we do everything within our power to manage the risk it brings. We build safe boats. We learn to swim. We learn to predict changes in the weather.

Cybersafety is not about trying to exert macro level control on the environment of cyberspace. Instead, effective cybersafety will empower ICT users to operate safely within this inherently unsafe environment. Constant technical evolution makes blocking, banning, and controlling risks extremely difficult. We therefore accept that risk exists, and learn to manage it.

Who is responsible for cybersafety?

Everybody who promotes the use of ICT has a vested interest in keeping users safe. NetSafe New Zealand was created by a member community that represents Government, the ICT industry, Law Enforcement, civil society, and the legal fraternity including the judiciary. In New Zealand NetSafe has three key strategic funding partners from each of the sectors of society: Government (The NZ Ministry of Education), Corporate (Westpac Bank of NZ), and civil society (InternetNZ). Each partner invests in NetSafe because they benefit from a more confident, capable, and safe population.

Organisations and nations implementing ICT4D projects have a greater responsibility to consider safety. Users in developed countries (such as New Zealand) have steadily been progressing along the technology learning curve. They have been evolving their risk management skills at a time when the consequences of failure were lower. That learning has prepared them to face online risk now - at a time when organised crime understands and has embraced the opportunity of the web. People suddenly introduced to cyberspace are thrust into a world of high consequence online risk armed only with outdated offline risk management skills.

How do you improve cybersafety?

NetSafe takes a three pronged approach to the challenge of promoting cybersafety revolving around technology, regulation, and education. Individually, each strand can have only a limited and temporary effect, but properly combined they can create a powerful force for change.

Education should be the major thrust of any cybersafety effort. If we can give people the broad skills required to manage today’s risks, they will be far more resilient to the next generation of threats. It is important to focus on broad skills, not specific responses. For example, if we teach people ICT media literacy, they will be far less likely to be fooled by altered images or false websites in the future -regardless of how convincing they might become!

In the rapidly changing environment that is cyberspace, technology tends to provide only a temporary barrier. However, it is a critical component of computer security and even filtering products (that are notoriously easy to bypass) can be useful – especially when working with young children. Technology should not be considered a safety panacea – but nor should it be dismissed as ineffective.

It is also important to update policies, laws, and regulations to create a framework for a safer online environment. Many existing laws can be used unchanged, but there are a number that need updating to address the increased scope, scale and speed of online threats. This updating process should happen on a macro scale (national laws and industry regulations) and on a micro level (organisation level policies and agreements).

From my computer in my house, I can connect to people and organizations across the globe. It would be very difficult for the NZ government and its agencies to protect me without infringing upon my freedom – and in New Zealand, we take freedom very seriously. NetSafe was created from a desire to protect our population without oppressive control.

We can give people the skills they require to manage risk and embrace the cyber environment. We can help make their experience with technology overwhelmingly positive, and increase the speed of meaningful technology adoption. That is cybersafety for development.


Share the knowledge and experiences from this successful multistakeholder partnership in cybersafety for development at the Third Global Knowledge Conference session on "Building a Cybersafety Partnership ".