The UN Broadband Commission has found that 73% women reported facing violence online. The report 'Cyberviolence against women and girls: A world-wide wake up call' launched recently at the UN headquarters flags the challenges thrown up by the new digital era in which the increased use of Internet and mobile gadgets has unleashed new forms of violence such as stalking, trolling and abuse of women online.
UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said that given the thrust on promoting Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by 193 world leaders here on Friday, there is need to address gender - based violence in all its forms, including cyberviolence.
“Goal 5 of the SDGs which calls for achieving gender equality, must be seen together with Goal 16, which calls for promoting peace, access to justice, and strengthening institutions to address violence. We cannot hope to achieve gender equality without addressing gender-based violence in all its possible forms,” she said.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngucka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, said that technology today actively promoted gender inequality by excluding women, who cannot access ICTs in the first place, and if they do, then by promoting women’s violence online. She expressed concern about sex trafficking and child pornography being increasingly promoted online.
Referring to the incident of the stalking and abuse of UN Women ambassador and actor Emma Watson online, Ms. Mlambo-Ngucka said that the mental stress that women subjected to such abuse online undergo is no less in degree than what physical violence at home subjects women to.
“Stalkers and abusers online take advantage of anonymity and are also encouraged by the viral nature of the online medium which provides instant fame,” she observed. She also emphasised the need to enable Internet users to be able to delete posts that they put up online, if they fear any threat or abuse to them. “The speed with which messages are carried online, also mean that threats can also reach people quickly,” she pointed out.
Doreen Bogdan-Martin, the International Telecommunications Unit's Chief of Strategic Planning and Membership Department, said that about 3.2 billion people accessed the online world, and the opportunity to create, share, discuss and learn, that the Internet provided can be put in jeopardy if online violence is not checked. Referring to the findings of the Cyberviolence report she said that sexually explicit, threatening messages were very common online.
Baroness Beeban Kidron, English film director, said that in the course of making a documentary on teenagers and their online experiences, she noticed how exposure to extreme and violent images or videos online changed children’s experience of childhood forever. She urged governments signing on to the 2030 development goals agreement to also invest in cyber trained police personnel who can provide support mechanisms for those facing violence online.
With 49% of women interviewed for the report stating that the police did nothing when complaints of cyberviolence were lodged with them, it is important to create necessary protocols for police and prosecutors to do the needful when cases of cyberviolence come to them, she said.
