Charges for Harmful Digital Communications Act offences in New Zealand
By justice service area, year ended June 2025, number of charges
| Justice service area | Number of charges |
|---|---|
| Taitokerau | 4 |
| Waitematā | 10 |
| Auckland | 15 |
| South Auckland | 10 |
| Waikato | 12 |
| Bay of Plenty | 9 |
| Waiariki | 4 |
| East Coast | 6 |
| Taranaki/Whanganui | 14 |
| Manawatū/Wairarapa | 9 |
| Northern Wellington | 8 |
| Wellington | 0 |
| Nelson/Marlborough/West Coast | 36 |
| Canterbury | 13 |
| Otago | 8 |
| Southland | 14 |
Definitions
Justice service area: The geographical groupings of individual court locations for administrative purposes. This also includes information on courts that have closed.
Court location: The court location is the location of the court where the charge outcome occurred.
People charged per year: A person is counted once per year. When a person has more than one charge with an outcome in a year the details of the most serious offence are included in the statistics.
People convicted per year: A person is counted once per year. When a person is convicted of more than one offence in a year the details of the most serious offence are included in the statistics.
Charge outcome: The outcome of a prosecution - whether a person is convicted or not.
Plea type: When the person who is charged with an offence appears in court they can plead not guilty (if they deny the charge) or guilty (if they admit the charge). If they plead guilty they are usually convicted and the judge gives them a sentence. The person's final plea type is included in this data.
Changes to data collection/processing
From 29 April 2016, the Ministry of Justice sources courts data from the new Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), rather than the justice sector data warehouse (ISIS) used over recent years. Changes in data processing may cause small differences if compared current output with similar results produced before 29 April 2016.
Prior to June 2017 a different administrative grouping, called service delivery areas, was used.
Data provided by
Dataset name
Justice Statistics: Harmful digital communication offences 2025
Webpage:
How to find the data
At URL provided, download 'View or download the harmful digital communications data tables' file.
Import & extraction details
File as imported: Justice Statistics: Harmful digital communication offences 2025
From the dataset Justice Statistics: Harmful digital communication offences 2025, this data was extracted:
- Sheet: 1.Charges by court & outcome
- Range:
D7:W378 - Provided: 3,750 data points
This data forms the table Justice - Charges for Harmful Digital Communications Act offences, by court and charge outcome 2016–2025.
Dataset originally released on:
September 16, 2025
About this dataset
Harmful Digital Communications Act offences was introduced on 3 July 2015. It aims to deter, prevent and lessen harmful digital communications including cyber bullying, harassment and revenge porn posted online. Offences under this act include 1765: Causing harm by posting digital communication and 1766: Fail to comply with Harmful Digital Communications Act. Examples of harmful digital communication include sending or publishing threatening or offensive material, spreading damaging rumours and sending or publishing sensitive personal information (embarrassing photos and videos).