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It’s the critical period for drownings around Aotearoa, and Water Safety New Zealand is teaming up with the Accident Compensation Commission to bring the swim reaper to people’s phones and other social media.
That’s the name of the character created to get across safety messages, especially to young men who indulge in risky behaviour in rivers and beaches.
Chief executive Jonty Mills says one in four preventable drownings are Maori, and almost a third of drownings are of males aged 15 to 24.
He says the aim is to talk to the target audience in their own language in the channels they follow.
"So we’re trying to hit them at the point they make unwise decisions and thecampign will be delivered predominently by social media platforms, the likes of Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and we are able to geotarget – we know where the high risk locations are, we know where most of the drownings occur, know where most of these young people participate so the campaign is very specific and targeted on those young kiwi males," Mr Mills says.
New Zealand has one of the highest drowning tolls in the developed world, with males making up 88 percent of the 93 preventable drownings so far this year andlmost a third of this years’ drownings occurring in rivers.
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