Online violence against women and girls report
The gendered nature of online violence deserves to be addressed in research, policy and prevention.
From April to November 2017, the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) led a six-month project that aimed at analysing the current state of online violence against women and girls in Europe.
In order to raise awareness of the problem, the European Women’s Lobby brought together diverse actors from across Europe to come up with innovative solutions and policy recommendations to fight this pervasive violation of women’s human rights and create a safer, more inclusive web for all women and girls.
Funded by Google, activities were carried out in order to take stock of the reality of online violence against women and girls in Europe.
Adriane van der Wilk and Marianne Niosi, consultants, coordinated by and with input from Pierrette Pape, the European Women’s Lobby Policy and Campaigns Director, have been conducting the project activities and the research drawing from the expertise and contributions from EWL members, EWL Observatory experts and various key stakeholders.
In Europe, 9 million girls have experienced some kind of cyber violence by the time they are 15 years old.
Sexist hate speech, cyberbullying, cyber harassment, cyberstalking, doxxing, creepshots, also called digital voyeurism or “upskirting”, revenge porn, or “image-based sexual abuse”, hacking, online impersonation, malicious distribution, mob attacks/cyber mobs, and abusive sextingare just a few of the examples of topics that need addressing.
The gendered nature of online violence deserves to be addressed in research, policy and prevention.
EWL’s Resource Pack aims to shine a feminist light on the world of data and technology and to offer ideas to help improve the situation.
And an executive summary of the #HerNetHerRights report gives a complete overview of the knowledge on online violence.
Its recommendations speak to policy makers and feminist activists.
The activist’s toolkit reviews all the resources available for women to feel fully empowered and protected in their use of the Internet.
And 12 illustrated vignettes outline the profiles of the most common types of online abusers.
To read the full report, ‘#HerNetHerRights’, click here.
Online violence against women and girls is part of the continuum of violence against women and girls. We must acknowledge its existence and fight against it, because its effects on women – from psychological to economical – are far-reaching.