Published July 2021

Netsafe has undertaken a study to better understand the community's awareness
towards online safety. The State of the Online Nation study is being released to coincide
with the start of the country's first dedicated online safety week taking place between
26-30 July 2021.

According to The State of the Online Nation, the majority of people are positive about
the overall impact of the internet on their lives (71%) and confident in their personal
ability to manage online safety challenges (60%). However, we believe the internet has
become more dangerous (68%) and will continue to do so (52%).

This pessimism is underscored by personal experience, with 52 percent of us have personally
faced an online safety challenge – and achieving relatively low rates of success when reporting
bad behaviours (33%).

Parents reported good levels of knowledge about their children’s lives online (63%) and the risks
they faced (69%). However, a higher percentage of people believe the impact of the internet on
young people is negative (46%) than positive (29%). This concern for young people is reflected in
the online safety interventions rated as likely to impact online safety significantly.

Included in this report is information about:
Views on the current and future state of safety online;
Experiences of online safety challenges and resolutions;
Levels of confidence and proactive activity;
Knowledge and views on the law as it applies online;
Preferred activities to improve online safety outcomes;
Digital parenting activities. (From the document). Record #7245