Factsheet: Who is sending and sharing potentially harmful digital communications?

This factsheet presents findings from a quantitative study looking at adults’ experiences of sending and sharing potentially harmful digital communications in New Zealand. Typically research into harmful digital communications focuses on the experiences of those on the receiving end – the victims. However, to better address the distress and harm caused, information is needed about the people sending and sharing potentially harmful messages and posts. In this study we asked adult New Zealanders whether they had sent potentially harmful digital communications in the previous year and if so, how often they had done this, who they were sent to, the channel(s) they used, and the reason for doing this.