The Department of Internal Affairs

The Department of Internal Affairs

Te Tari Taiwhenua

Building a safe, prosperous and respected nation

 

Services › Censorship Compliance › Censorship and the Internet

Censorship and the Internet

The Internet is a fantastic means of communication and source of information. Never before has global communication been so easy and so beneficial.

Medical staff can discuss the latest operating methods with colleagues on the other side of the world, students have several libraries of information at their fingertips and shoppers can purchase exotic goods without ever leaving home.

There is however, a small minority of people who use the Internet for harmful illegal activities, in particular those individuals who trade and distribute objectionable material. If a publication is categorised as ‘objectionable’ it is automatically banned by the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993.

The Department of Internal Affairs’ inspectors undertake the role of investigating New Zealand Internet websites and newsgroups and enforcing censorship legislation. We take a proactive role to prosecute New Zealanders who trade objectionable material via the Internet.

Appropriate Use of the Internet

Every business, school and university can implement a Code of Conduct or Acceptable Use Policy to clearly set out what is considered appropriate use of the Internet.

All people who have Internet access through an organisation should be made aware of their responsibilities while on the Internet.

Having a Code of Conduct will not protect you from prosecution action so organisations should always consider getting their own legal advice. Note section 138 of the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act – Liability of employers. For home users, an awareness of what is considered to be objectionable, the type of material that will have an age restriction, and an understanding of the penalties involved will lead to a safer Internet experience. The Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System is designed to assist in combating the trade in child sexual abuse images by making it more difficult for persons with a sexual interest in children to access that material. The Censorship Compliance Unit at the Department of Internal Affairs are available to answer any queries you might have or to provide advice about safety on the Internet.

Glossary of Internet Jargon

Virus

Malicious programme designed to damage data; usually spread via infested e-mail attachments.

Trojan

Malicious software disguised as harmless programme. One of the most common net security threats, it hides in the background and can trigger programmes to run that steal personal information or details stored on that computer for instance.

Firewall

Software to protect computers against hackers.

Keylogging

Software/hardware to track keystrokes on a computer to gather passwords, credit card numbers etc.

Phishing

Fraudulent e-mails and pop-ups to fool you into revealing personal information for criminal gain. The most common phishing scam is one used to con people into handing over bank account details online.

Rogue dialler

Software that installs itself on computers and changes settings to dial a premium rate number instead of usual dial-up account.

Spam

Unsolicited e-mails, often offering products or services in which you have no interest.

Spyware

Small programmes that secretly monitor sites visited, potentially violating privacy and slowing computers.


*You need Adobe Reader installed on your computer to view our files. If you are unable to open the files we recommend you get the latest version of Adobe Reader. You can download and install Acrobat Reader for free from the Adobe website.