'Girls on the Net' Survey

The results of the Internet Safety Group (ISG) online survey of adolescent girls about their use of the Net illustrates with searing clarity why it is so important to do more research on Internet usage in New Zealand. How can we prioritise our Internet Safety efforts and resources if we don't know what the areas are of greatest need? Research on what is happening here in New Zealand can give us those clear directions.

'Girls on the Net' has given us a glimpse of the sort of risks young girls are taking on the Internet, and the sort of behaviours they are encountering there. Now we need to know more. Among other things, we need to know about the Internet usage of adolescent boys, primary age students, and young people who are not regular Net users. Plans are underway for new ISG research projects which will give us results in 2001, and help us plan our efforts for 2002. All results will be posted here.

The full 'Girls on the Net' survey is available by clicking at the bottom of this section. Here are a few key findings. The girls were age 11-19 and all living in New Zealand when they completed the survey.

• 68.5% were using the Internet most days.
• 33.5% have had a personal face-to-face meeting with someone they met on the Internet.
• 60% had done at least one potentially unsafe behaviour. (35.5% gave out personal information e.g. address/phone no., 26.5% sent a photo of themselves to someone they met, and 14.5% had posted a picture of themselves on the Net.)
• 95.5% use the Internet at home, yet 75% state that their use of the Internet at home is only occasionally (37.5%) or never (37.5%) monitored by an adult.
• 44.5% use the Internet at school, yet 58% state that their use of the Internet at school is monitored only occasionally (28.5%) or never (29.5%) by an adult.
• 22.5% report having felt unsafe or threatened while using the Internet (most commonly from sexual threats).

The commercial website for girls, nzgirl, posted the survey for the Internet Safety Group, and they now have a permanent page on Internet safety for visitors to the site. We would like to commend Jenene Crossan, owner of nzgirl, for taking a step that we hope sets an industry standard - pairing encouragement of Internet use with simple safety information on commercial sites.

Please visit this page again soon for the results of projects now in the works.

Click here to download the full 'Girls on the Net' survey. (PDF format)