27 July 2009 - Media release

To celebrate Māori Language Week, the Privacy Commissioner has launched Whakaarotia kātahi ka tuku atu ai - a privacy video aimed at young people.

'We thought it was important to translate this video into Te Reo Māori,' said the Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff. 'We want to encourage everyone to be aware of the risks of putting their personal information online. Our version includes homegrown music and we are grateful to Hikoikoi for the use of their song.'

The video was produced by the Asia-Pacific privacy forum (APPA) of which New Zealand is a part. The South Korean and Hong Kong members of APPA have also translated the video into Korean and Chinese.

'Across the region, we realised the need to focus young people on thinking about what they upload. Young people need to be aware that their personal information and comments on social networking sites can often by read by anyone - the sites aren't private spaces. You can lose control of your information once it's posted publicly,' said Ms Shroff.

This year, preliminary findings from the NetSafe Convergence Generation research project of approximately 1,700 New Zealand high school students, indicated that half of NZ teenagers post sensitive information about themselves on publicly available web pages and mobile phone chat rooms.

View the video.

ENDS

The Privacy Commissioner thanks the following people for their support in making the video:

• Petone based band, Hikoikoi for its permission to use their song Dub Amour. For more details about the band go to www.myspace.com/Hikoikoi
• Taumauri Trust - web-based Maori Language Translation, www.tmt.co.nz
• Execam, television, video and dvd production, www.execam.co.nz

Please contact us if you would like a DVD. We can also arrange to send you any format of the video for TV.

APPA is the Asia and Pacific Privacy Authorities, which include privacy jurisdictions in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Korea and New Zealand.

For further information contact: Annabel Fordham 021 509 735 or 04 474 7598.