European men are the worst offenders when it comes to harmful digital communications in New Zealand.
The victims mostly targeted are Māori women and children.
Māori digital data experts said agencies set up to protect the public, such as Netsafe, are failing Māori and other minority groups and should be restructured.
Karaitiana Taiuru, a Māori digital data analyst, is an expert tracker of the harm Māori suffer from trolls online. He believes the online harm suffered by Māori is actually three times higher than what's being reported.
"It's significant. In every aspect of online harm that's been researched and New Zealand,
Māori are always overrepresented. Whether it's online abuse, racial abuse, sexual predators, just the whole range," he said.
The New Zealand Police, SIS, and Netsafe are some of the organisations that enforce the Harmful Digital Communications Act. The 2015 legislation was designed to prevent online bullying, harassment, revenge porn, and other forms of abuse.
"Online abuse and digital harm is our next global threat," said Netsafe cultural advisor Amokura Panoho.
Netsafe's recent research shows that in the past two years, harmful content has increased by more than 25 percent, with Māori women and children targeted the most.
"Statistically, Māori women end up in the bottom, you know, looking pretty bad across a broad range of statistics," Panoho said. "We do not want the online environment which has become a normal part of our lives to become another platform to harass and intimidate Māori women."
Newshub has obtained NZ Police data showing complaints causing online harm have increased by 20 percent in the past five years. Over the past seven years, 71 percent of those charged with all online harm offences have been European, while 83 percent have been male.
The percentages for those convicted are similar.
Most incidents reported are harmful content posted online, followed by intimate visual recordings.
"Usually European males targeting Māori girls and young women with all sorts of vile sorts of abuse," Taiuru said.
Administrative Police data shows hate crime is also on the rise, with at least 250 incidents on average reported a month. But it's believed only two people have been prosecuted under New Zealand's hate speech laws.
In a recent case that hit the headlines, Richard Jacobs, in his mid-forties, uploaded a video to YouTube calling for the killing of Māori. He was charged with inciting racial disharmony and making an objectionable publication.
Often those being targeted are the most innocent.
"Many of the people being targeted by hate online are the kōhanga reo kids and kura kaupapa Māori kids, people who speak Māori as a first language, they don't have the support," Taiuru said.
Police declined several requests for an interview, but they conceded that while they are the only agency that can arrest people, they currently don't have an accurate picture of hate crimes or related offences. They also do not routinely ask victims about their self-identified ethnicity.
Other agencies are also struggling to collect data that would better assist victims.
"Māori women aren't coming forward, even though anecdotally we are aware that they are being victimised," Panoho said.
Panoho is aiming for better outcomes for Māori online safety.
"We need to start thinking seriously how we collectively raise these issues within our own respective forums and at the parliamentary legislative level as well," Panoho said.
Government-funded organisations in this space are all increasing their diversity and cultural capability to support and engage better with Māori. But Taiuru said it's too little too late for Netsafe.
"At the moment, we basically have a Eurocentric organisation that has failed Māori in the past," Taiuru said. "If we can start fresh, start a new organisation, that's led with Tiriti principles, I think would be the only way forward."
