The secondary teachers’ union says misinformation, disinformation and a toxic online culture are increasingly turning up in classrooms — and wants the Government to move faster on regulation and support for schools.

PPTA Te Wehengarua president Chris Abercrombie welcomed the Education and Workforce Committee’s recommendations on the harms young people face online, released yesterday, and said the findings match what teachers are seeing day to day.

“New Zealand teachers are witnessing firsthand the disruptive impact of these harms on classroom dynamics, students’ ability to think critically, their mental health, and teacher workload,” he said.

The union is pushing for:

• Critical media literacy to be embedded across curricula
• Professional development for teachers who have had to adopt and manage digital tools on the fly
• Government action to close legislative gaps and strengthen liability for online harm
• More New Zealand-based research on the impact of digital technologies in education
• Greater transparency from tech companies about their products and processes

As part of the Online Safety Coalition, PPTA is also joining calls for an independent national online safety regulator. “Companies should be required to provide transparency over their products and processes. Everyone deserves to be safe online,” Abercrombie said.

He added that PPTA will continue to question the purpose and use of digital tools in classrooms and wants research that improves understanding of their effects on learning and wellbeing.

Abercrombie said young people need to be directly involved in shaping responses. “Young people must be front and centre in our efforts to build digital resilience and belonging in the face of growing division online and in our communities.”

The comments follow a paper to PPTA’s annual conference last year on responding to online extremism, which Abercrombie described as a “canary in the goldmine” for what schools are now confronting.