Understanding responsibilities and best practices for your school
Whether they’re sending an email from their school account, sending a message in Google Classroom, chatting in Teams, or commenting on a classmate’s Google doc, today’s ākonga do a lot of their communicating online. And, just as schools and kura don’t accept hurtful or bullying communication in the real world, they shouldn’t tolerate it in online spaces.
That’s where the Harmful Digital Communications Act (HDCA) comes in. Under the Act, a person who posts a digital communication that breaches a communications principle and which causes serious emotional distress to an individual may be liable to either civil proceedings or a criminal offence. Harmful communication includes things like: bullying and harassment, threats, sharing sensitive information, and sharing harmful images.
What does this mean for your school or kura? While there’s no set of guidelines for HDCA compliance in schools, the Act does provide a framework for best practices around online communications, creating safer digital spaces, and responding effectively to harmful incidents. In particular, the Act includes 10 communications principles which provide some guiderails to appropriate online behaviour. It ties in with the Education and Training Act 2020, which requires school leaders and boards to provide a safe physical and emotional environment for ākonga – including digital environments.
We teamed up with online safety not-for-profit Netsafe to explain:
What does HDCA compliance look like in schools?
How can school leaders and boards be sure both they and users of their online spaces are not breaching the HDCA? There’s no list of compliance rules to follow – instead, it’s about taking a holistic approach to digital safety, including clear policies and reporting processes, smart tech tools, educated staff and students, and a culture built around respect and support, both online and off.
In practice, this looks like using technology to block and filter potentially harmful content. It looks like teaching the principles of digital citizenship in the classroom. It looks like students signing clear cyber safety agreements before they log in to a school network. Of course, this all needs to be supported by kaiako and support staff with the knowledge and confidence to understand the tech and respond to issues when they pop up.
Behind the scenes, school boards need to be on top of the systems and policies that support online safety. Are your policies up to date with technology and regulations? Are your tech systems able to monitor and protect without compromising learning?
Here are three key steps toward safe, HDCA-compliant communication in your school:
1. Promote safe, respectful digital communication
While the HDCA doesn’t include specific compliance requirements around digital communication in schools, it does include 10 communications principles which provide some guiderails to appropriate online behaviour.
Netsafe recommends embedding digital literacy and respectful online communication into the school curriculum and making ākonga part of the process. This means, instead of sending a couple of ‘online safety’ emails at the beginning of the year, talks about respect, safety, and online harm should happen all the time. Kaiako and ākonga should know what harmful online communication looks like and who to approach if they receive inappropriate or hurtful messages. This serves a dual purpose: It promotes safe, respectful behaviour on the school network and helps ākonga build positive habits to take them into their adult lives.
It’s also important to give whānau information and guidance about digital safety policies and school guidelines, along with resources for online safety at home.
2. Create strong internal policies
Under the HDCA, school boards that have control over a school network or website may be treated as ‘online content hosts’’ and may therefore be legally responsible for communication and content that other people post on their network, including the school website, and any apps used for teaching or learning. This means that if a student bullies another student through Google Meet or sends harmful images via their school email, your school board could be liable. Any communication that comes from the school – including from kaiako and other school staff – also falls under the Act.
To prevent harm on your network and help protect your school and community, a clear, well-communicated policy for digital communication is key.
Your Acceptable Use guidelines should:
- Define harmful communication and content
- Explain the rules around device use on the school network
- Detail how your school will educate and support ākonga and whānau
- Set standards for unacceptable behaviour
- Lay out a clear reporting and investigation procedure, along with consequences
- Include follow-ups and support for affected victims
Like all school documentation, it’s important that your board reviews and updates your policy regularly, to keep up with changing technology and changes to the act.
3. Respond to harmful incidents
The HDCA is about minimising harm, but it also provides a clear pathway for complaints about harmful online communication. Under the Act, the professional leader of a registered school can make a complaint on a student’s behalf, particularly if the harmful incident has happened on your network or through school communication channels.
Netsafe recommends having an established complaint procedure in place, carefully monitoring all school-managed platforms, and responding quickly if an issue does crop up. It’s about protecting your ākonga and making online spaces safer. The Ministry of Education recommends making cyber safety part of staff training and having a process in place to respond to digital incidents. Online safety should be led by your school IT lead or admin, and the Ministry recommends having a designated incident response lead in place as well – typically the school principal or another senior leader.
Because the Act treats schools as ‘online content hosts’ in some cases, your school board could be liable for harmful content posted on your website or network. However, you can usually avoid legal consequences if you follow the Safe Harbour process laid out by the Ministry of Justice. Under these rules, you need to make it easy for users to lodge a complaint about communication on your network, and follow a specific process within a strict timeframe when a complaint is made.
How to respond:
- When you receive a complaint, follow the ‘Safe Harbour’ steps within 48 hours to protect your school board from legal action.
- Report the incident to Netsafe – the approved agency under the HDCA. Netsafe also provides resolution options, including advice or mediation, which can help you resolve issues early on.
- In serious cases, you may need to report the incident to the NZ Police.N4L has a role here as well – we monitor your Internet Safety & Security Services settings and can let you know if something changes that could put your school at risk.
Safety starts with knowledge
Creating safer, respectful and protected digital environments for ākonga all comes down to knowledge. By understanding how the HDCA applies in a school setting, leaders can develop strong internal policies, deliver effective training, and build a culture of digital respect and responsibility throughout the school.
Alongside this, resources from Netsafe, guidance from the Ministry of Education, and technical tools from N4L mean schools don’t need to face these challenges alone. It’s about working together to comply with legal obligations and create a safer online space for all students.
Latest update
A Member’s Bill called the Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill has been introduced and is progressing through Parliament. If passed, it would amend the HDCA to explicitly cover digitally altered or synthesised images and videos (deepfakes) in intimate contexts. This expands current law so that intimate visual recordings created or altered without consent would fall under the HDCA offence provisions.
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