Young Pacific Islanders are being driven to suicidal despair by anonymous social media pages that destroy reputations overnight and regional leaders warned this week the digital wild west must end before more lives were lost.
Kiribati Minister for Women, Youth, Sport and Social Affairs Ruth Cross Kwansing told the Pacific Peace and Security Dialogue in Suva of a notorious page called “Nariel 2.0” meaning “the ghost” whose anonymous operators used secret agents to post compromising footage of young people, shattering lives across her tiny island communities.
“It was only a matter of time if we didn’t already know that someone had committed suicide because of these exact issues,” Ms Kwansing said.
“I thought we shouldn’t have to wait until that happens before we mobilise.”
She personally compiled evidence with UNICEF to have the page removed by Facebook, but warned that without mandatory account verification, predators and bullies could always hide behind fake profiles.
“It really is a lawless environment,” she said, calling on Pacific nations to pressure tech companies collectively.
Australia’s Ambassador for Cyber Affairs and Critical Technology Jessica Hunter said the Pacific family faced a rapidly accelerating threat, revealing that seven in 10 Australian children had received online abuse or been exposed to harmful material — often through AI companion bots that lured them into dangerous spaces.
Australia became the first country in the world to ban social media for under-16s, deactivating more than five million underage accounts.
Ms Hunter said the ban was only the beginning, and urged Pacific nations to pool their demands on technology companies.
“If there are more countries asking for your own standards and settings, collectively there is a lot more power,” she said.
Papua New Guinea Media Council President Neville Choi said Pacific nations needed to stop playing by Silicon Valley’s rules altogether.
“We can’t keep playing by other people’s rules,” he said.
“We need to build our own tools rested on Pacific values, culture, and languages.”
