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John Key opens up about cyber-bulling fears for son

Prime Minister John Key has spoken out about his cyber-bulling fears for son, Max.

Prime Minister John Key has spoken out about his bullying fears for his son and other young Kiwis.

Key’s son Max recently took up an on-air role with Auckland radio station George FM, and released his debut single Forget You – both of which received mixed reviews online.

Speaking to MoreFM about a radio segment where Max read out angry tweets Facebook messages targeted at him, Key said his son dealt with the criticism “amazingly well” but he did worry about the personal attacks.

“He gets a lot of haters on his Instagram or his Facebook or whatever – but he also gets a lot of people supporting him.

“But I say to him, ‘Look, you appreciate that half the country’s not going to terribly like me because they don’t vote for what we’re doing … just don’t take it personally’, but he’s really good, he understands that.”

Key said the personal criticism was “a bit of a load for any young person to carry”, but it was a problem facing many Kiwi children.

“I was saying to the [youth mental health programme] reviewers who came in, I do worry about this online cyber-bullying, not just for Max but every kid – it’s really awful out there on Facebook and Snapchat and all the rest of it.”

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