The Chief Coroner is backing proposed law changes to crack down on "cyber-bullying" because of concern it is helping fuel New Zealand's high rate of youth suicide.
Judge Neil MacLean says bullying by mobile-phone texting or on social media such as Facebook is "often a background factor" in suicides coming before coroners.
"We know it's certainly a risk factor for suicide, and we know that adolescents often talk about interpersonal problems when investigators are looking into not necessarily completed suicides but self-harm," he said.
Recent Law Commission proposals to create new offences of incitement to suicide, maliciously impersonating another person and publishing intimate photos without consent all "deserve the attention of the legislature", Judge MacLean said.
The commission also recommended amending the Harassment, Telecommunications and Human Rights Acts to make it clear they covered internet-based racial, sexual and other harassment and using a computer "for the purpose of disturbing, annoying or irritating any person" - an offence which now applies only to using a telephone.
"I think they are simple, practical steps that could help," Judge MacLean said.
One survey of 9-year-olds in 35 countries found New Zealand had the world's second-highest rate of school bullying.
It also had the world's highest suicide rate for young males aged 15 to 24 in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and the second-highest overall death rate of young people aged 10 to 24, reflecting a high road death toll as well as suicide.
A long-term study of 1265 people born in Christchurch in 1977 found both adolescents who were bullied and the teenagers who bullied them were two and a-half to three times more likely than others to attempt to commit suicide before the age of 30, although both groups also shared many other risk factors, such as being physically and sexually abused as children.
Judge MacLean has called several times for more public discussion of the reasons for New Zealand's high youth suicide rate, which is still unexplained.
"I'm as baffled as anyone," he said.
Health Ministry figures published last month show the rate dropped from a peak of 29 suicides for every 100,000 young people in 1995 to 18 per 100,000 in 2009.
But this was still the highest in the world for males and third highest for females that age.
The youth suicide rate was below all older age groups for 40 years until 1985, then almost doubled in three years and has stayed above all older age groups in most years since 1987.
"Its nature tells us it's probably to do with the high youth unemployment rate, the high dropout rate of certain youth from education, disproportionately represented in the Maori population," Judge MacLean said.
"You can look at your own life experience - perhaps society was more supportive of young people, family links were stronger, teenagers didn't have the disposable income, the ability to keep things from their parents via the internet ... "
Internet advice agency Netsafe told the Law Commission it was concerned about a "proliferation of anonymous Facebook pages used to publish derogatory and often sexually explicit rumours about students".
"The first of these gossip pages to come to their attention included `extremely derogatory' comments about students and ultimately is thought to have played some part in the suicide of a young girl," the commission said.
It suggested creating a new commissioner or a tribunal with powers to order internet providers to take down such pages if they breached any law and were likely to result in psychological or other harm.
75% of NZ pupils targeted
A 2007 study of 9-year-olds in 35 countries found that 75% of New Zealand pupils had suffered at least one of five forms of bullying in the previous month, a higher rate than all other countries except Tunisia.
The five forms were being hit or hurt, having something stolen, being made fun of or called names, being made to do things they did not want to do, and being left out of activities.
A third of Kiwi children (33%) suffered at least three of the five.
An Auckland University Youth 2007 survey of 9100 pupils at 96 New Zealand secondary schools found 48% had had false rumours spread about them in the past year, 41% had been called hurtful names, 37% had things taken from them and 35% were physically hurt.
Bullying rates declined slightly since a previous survey in 2001.
The number of pupils who felt safe at school increased from 78.1% to 83.5%, and those who were bullied at least once a week fell from 7.1% to 6.1%.
One pupil out of every class of 25 students (4.1%) did not go to school at least once in the past month because of bullying.
