Almost half of New Zealand parents fail to actively monitor where their children are going online.
As a result of the potential for harm, Netsafe has launched a new online safety programme for children in response to parents concerned about the online harm tamariki are dealing with.
Hector may be a familiar face to some parents.
The organisation has rebooted an animated video project from 15 years ago that uses a cartoon dolphin named Hector and his friends to teach young kids online safety.
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Netsafe chief online safety officer Sean Lyons said the programme was aimed at children aged 5-10 years.
He said Netsafe has found around 43% of Kiwi parents weren't actively monitoring their kids' online activity.
"We want to make sure we're equipping parents to have conversations with kids. Over 300 young people aged under 12 reached out to us last year.
"Thirteen is too late to be talking to young people, most social sites age limit is 13 so this is a bit of a gap, most of it is for tweens."
He said Netsafe wanted to encourage parents to take a more active role in keeping young people safe when they're at home.
Lyons added that there were some differences between boys' and girls' online activity. He said girls were more likely to speak up if someone was being mean online, whereas boys were more likely to keep quiet about any kind of cyber-bullying.
He said Hector focused on how to approach typical online contact such as falling out with friends, spotting stranger danger, how much personal information to share, privacy, and troublesome friendships.
"We've been working with Ministry Of Education, and young people to co-design the content and match it to the curriculum. We had a youth action squad involving young people in person workshops.
"We also have youth volunteers who have worked with us over a number of years."
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