Social Media Safety and Reporting Harmful Content Guidelines SS GDL 003.pdf

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1. Purpose
The purpose of this guideline is to support and assist you as an individual in helping to keep
yourself safe online.  This guideline provides advice on social media security and how to
respond to comments, harassment or other issues you may face online.
Scope
This guideline applies to all Kāinga Ora employees (including casual and fixed term
employees), secondees and interns.
2. Introduction
Social media is a reality of modern life and the nature of our work means that we’ll often be
in the spotlight. Social media is also a fast changing environment, with new technology and
trends developing all the time that we need to adapt to.
This makes it easy for people we work with to freely express their opinion and engage in
robust discussions. We welcome feedback and the opportunity to improve our services.
However, sometimes this content can become harmful to you or your family members and
friends.
It’s important that you talk with your People Leader if you’re feeling upset or affected by
work-related content on social media, such as:
  negative comments or conversations about you or the people you work with
  someone’s privacy has been breached
  if you or someone you work with is being bullied, harassed, or directly targeted with
comments that may cause harm.
Make sure you share your concerns as soon as possible with your People Leader and the
Health, Safety and Security Team if you believe there is abuse that needs to be responded
to.
Kāinga Ora has the Employee Assistance Programme you can also call on for assistance.
Policy and other supporting documents
See also:
  Digital Harm policy – operational policy relating to digital harm
  Kāinga Ora social media guidance – provides details about staff code of conduct when
posting information online.

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link to page 8 link to page 8 link to page 8 3. What are the options for responding to harmful content?
Talk to your People Leader
First of all, let your People Leader know this has happened and discuss options for support
and how to respond. This may include internal reporting (see section 7 Escalating and
Reporting digital harm internally) and external complaint processes through social media
platforms or Netsafe (see next section below).
If you are aware of a post related to your role on a social media platform that has had an
impact on your health, personal security or mental wellbeing, in addition to reporting this to
you People Leader, also report it to:
  the Senior Security Advisor, and
  the Noggin 2 Incident Reporting System as soon as possible.
Further details is available in section 7 Escalating and Reporting digital harm internally.
Complain to Netsafe
All people in New Zealand are able to make a complaint to Netsafe about digital
communications that are causing them harm, as outlined under the Harmful Digital
Communications Act 2015.
This includes online/digital bullying, abuse and harassment, and when someone has put
something online that:
  tries to get someone to hurt themselves
  shares intimate images without consent (shared nudes, sometimes called “revenge
porn”)
  encourages other people to send harmful messages to someone
  most people would think is very offensive
  shares someone’s sensitive and/or confidential information without their permission
  makes a false allegation about someone
  puts someone down because of their colour, race, ethnic or national origins, gender,
religion, sexual orientation, or disability
  is indecent or obscene
  threatens to hurt someone or damage their property
  relates to a fake online platform or application profile
  is causing harm to someone.

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link to page 7 Community standards and policies
Social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have policies that
outline what they deem is and isn’t acceptable.
Social media platforms need to balance safety and freedom of speech. This means that they
often allow content to remain even when some find it offensive. See section 6 of this
guideline: How to report harmful content to social media platform.
Listed below are some guidelines available on the internet that you may find useful:
  YouTube community guidelines
  Instagram community guidelines
  Facebook community standards
We also follow the Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission Social media guidance.
4. What you should do if you are targeted on social media because
of your work
First steps
  Let your People Leader know and discuss any further support that may be required to
keep yourself and others safe.
  Take accurate records, including a screenshot of the page and posts. Record the date
and time the harmful content was published. Save any images or videos and record the
full URL (web address) of the page.
  If the content breaches the policies and guidelines of the social media platform, report
the content using the guidelines below.
  Log an incident using the Noggin 2 Incident Reporting System as soon as possible.
Protect yourself
  Do not retaliate or engage with the post or comments. Engaging can lead to an
escalation and spread of abuse as other people or, in some cases, ‘trolls’ engage. (A troll
is a person who starts or expands on arguments or deliberately upsets people on the
internet by posting inflammatory, or off-topic messages in an online community.)
  Review, and if necessary, adjust your own privacy settings and consider what is visible to
others. See Netsafe’s site: How to use privacy settings on social networks.
  For your own wellbeing you may want to avoid reading the comments. Stop following
the page or group where the harmful comments are being made or take a break from
social media for a while.
  While you may want to see what is in the content, try to avoid watching it as increasing
the view count can help spread the content further by boosting it in a social media site’s
algorithm.

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  If a particular person is abusing or harassing you, or if you don’t want to be visible to
someone, consider blocking them.
If you are concerned about the immediate safety of yourself or others, call 111.
5. Keeping yourself safe online
Be vigilant with privacy settings
Each social media site has controls to help you protect your privacy.  For example, the
Facebook Help Centre allows you to see which sections of your profile you can edit. It also
tells you how to secure your account so that you can prevent contacts, or other people,
from tagging you without your consent.
Consider modifying your social media name
If you are concerned about being found on social media, consider using a pseudonym that
differs from the name you use at work. This can enable you to still use social media with a
lower risk of being discovered and harassed.
Pseudonyms could include going by:
  your unmarried/maiden name; or
  an older family name; or
  a full name if you socially have a nickname; or
  a nickname if you use your full name in work settings; or
  your first and middle name and no surname.
Note: You need to be aware that in some cases, choosing a pseudonym that is obviously not
your own name or related to your name can violate the provider’s terms of service. You
could be locked out of your account as a result.
Do a web search on yourself
It’s a good idea to do a web search for your name and other personal details online to see
what is publicly available – you may be surprised by what you find.
Consider removing anything that could be used to identify you and any personal
information.
Doxing
Doxing (sometimes spelt ‘doxxing’) is a type of online harassment where people share
personal or identifying information about someone online without their consent. This could
include a person’s full legal name, address, place of work, phone number or contact details
for family members.

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In many cases people will dox a person using information they find available online. In other
cases, people may access your private information through hacking into your account or
guessing your password.
Netsafe has more guidance on the process to prevent or report issues on Doxing.
How to protect yourself from being doxed
Be cautious of what you share online: Usually, people looking to ‘dox’ a person will search
for information that is listed online somewhere. Think carefully before sharing any personal
details or information on a public profile or website as someone could try and use this
information against you. You should be particularly careful when publically posting:
  pictures or posts that identify your house and address
  details of your plans (that is, where you or your family plan to go and when)
  pictures of your car that include the registration plate
  pictures or details of where you or your family work.
If you do want to share this information with a social media contact, consider using the
private message function.
Use strong passwords: One of the ways people sometimes access personal information to
dox someone is by guessing passwords to online accounts. Make sure you use a different
password for each of your online accounts and ensure they are strong by following their
advice: How to choose a good password. Also make sure you’ve got two-factor
authentication set up on your online accounts for extra protection.
Report abuse before things get out of hand: In some cases, doxing can happen after people
have had a disagreement online. Remember, someone doxing you is never okay. To keep
yourself safe, it’s sometimes best to use the ‘report’ and ‘block’ functionality to report
abusive content rather than continuing an argument online.
6. How to report harmful content to social media platforms
Most harmful social media content needs to be self-reported. This means that the person
being targeted will need to report the content themselves to the social media platform.
Not every post or comment will be removed when you report it. If you can specifically
identify how it violates the platform’s policies, privacy rules or New Zealand law there is a
greater chance that action will be taken.
Reporting incidents on social media platforms
Most social media platforms will have links on their apps or website to ‘report abuse/privacy
violations’. These links can be used to report instances of abuse, defamation, privacy
breaches or similar concerns.
Some examples of these links can be found below:

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link to page 8 link to page 8 link to page 9 link to page 9 link to page 9   Facebook’s Defamation Reporting Form and Privacy Violation Reporting Form
  YouTube’s Privacy Complaint Process
  Instagram’s Report Violation Process
You can also report an incident directly to Netsafe:
  Netsafe’s Report an Incident Page
Contact Netsafe to get further advice:
  Website - www.netsafe.org.nz
  Text - ‘Netsafe’ to 4282
  Email - [email address]
  Call - 0508 NETSAFE (0508 638 723) The helpline is open from 8am to 8pm Monday to
Friday and 9am to 5pm on weekends.
If you are still concerned, please talk to your People Leader or the HSS team who will be
able to advise on next steps. See also next section: Escalating and reporting digital
internally.
7. Escalating and reporting digital harm internally
The scenarios below provide information on immediate steps our staff and contractors must
take upon identifying or receiving a harmful digital communication.
Communication scenarios
Escalation
Threatening communication:
  published on a social media platform;
  Assess and escalate in
  sent directly to staff, contractor (for example,
accordance with Kāinga Ora
personal phone, work mobile, personal email,
Threat Management Process
contact at home address)
  See Internal escalation
  uploaded to Kāinga Ora online platform, such as
section for actions required
MyKāingaOra
Offensive communication:
  published on social media platform


  See Internal escalation
  sent directly to staff, contractor
section for actions required
  uploaded to Kāinga Ora platform, such as
MyKāingaOra
Communication published to social media platform
that:
  See Internal escalation
  identifies individual staff or contractors by name,
section for actions required
image and/or recording

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  releases sensitive information about a staff
member or contractor, such as a phone number
or home address
Internal escalation
If any threatening, harmful or disturbing content is sent:
  report it immediately to your People Leader/Manager
Note: If the content is disturbing or harmful, do not share the actual content with the
People Leader (this is to protect them from also being distressed by the material) just
tell them what has happened; then
  notify the Senior Security Advisor by emailing [email address]
so that they can assess and mitigate risk and provide support as needed; and
  report in Noggin and Kotahi (if tenancy related).
Note:
See also Raising a work order from MyKaingaOra SRQ if harmful content relates to
MyKaingaOra.
8. Supporting your wellbeing
It can be distressing reading harmful comments about yourself or your work online.
As well as reporting the content it’s important that you seek support if your wellbeing is
impacted. Talk to your People Leader if you are concerned and discuss support options.
Your People Leader and the Health, Safety and Support team are here to help you. Please
report concerns you believe we should be aware of.
If you are aware of a post on a social media platform that has an impact on your health,
personal security or mental wellbeing, please report this using the Noggin 2 Incident
Reporting System as soon as possible.
For other online related concerns, you can also reach out to the Technology Security and
Risk Team at Kāinga Ora. While they are not social media experts, they can assist in
providing guidance where possible.
Our Employee Assistance Programme
You can access the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for voluntary, private and
confidential counselling services. Contact EAP on 0800 327 669 (0800 EAP NOW) or speak
with your People Leader or Senior Advisor Health and Wellbeing for more information about
support options.
9. Help
If you require help or information about this guidelines, please contact the Health, Safety
and Security Team for assistance.

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10. Document control
Details of previous versions of this document will be stored in our document management
system (Objective).
Version
Reason for change
This guideline replaces ‘Social media safety – Guide for our team
1
member’ (originally authored by Jayson Kingsbeer who no longer works
for Kāinga Ora), which is archived.
SME review
Name
Designation
Date
Shaun Veenswyk
Health Safety Security Coordinator
10/6/2021
Alexa Zelensky
Social Media Advisor
9/6/2021
Naomi Hosted
Manager Technical Response
10/6/2021
Endorsers
Legal

Juliet Philpott
Solicitor
21/06/2021
Business owner

Director Safety Support and
Tarniya Comrie
22/06/2021
Wellbeing
Keywords for Atamai
SSGDL003; SS-GDL-003; Social media harassment; online safety; how to deal with online
abuse; Facebook; YouTube; Twitter; Instagram; Social media safety; how to deal with social
media abuse; How to report social media content
Information architecture
SS Support Safety and Security - Manage Health Safety and Security > Guidelines  >
SS-GDL-003

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