Accelerating efforts to tackle online and technology facilitated violence against women and girls (VAWG)
भर
This
report, published by the United Nations Women, highlights the existing data and
evidence on online and tech-fueled violence against women and girls. The report
lists what the aforesaid violence includes, who is on the receiving end of it,
who are the perpetrators, the impact of the act, and finally, the solutions
that can combat it.
Published in 2022, this report states that the prevalence of online and technology facilitated VAWG ranges from 16 per cent to 58 per cent across the globe. Such violence includes acts like sexual harassment, stalking, zoom bombing ("the practice of disrupting or infiltrating a video-conference call and showing racially charged or sexually explicit material to the unexpecting participants”).
This 14-page document is divided into several sections, some of which are: Defining online and technology facilitated violence against women and girls (VAWG); How widespread is online and technology facilitated VAWG; Groups of women and girls at greater risk.-
A study conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit states that 38 per cent of women have themselves experienced online violence while 85 per cent have witnessed digital violence against other women.
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This report states that online predatory behaviour has been on the rise after covid-19 pandemic, which accelerated the use of online technology.
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Most of the girls in a global survey reported that their first experience of social media harassment happened between the ages of 14 and 16 years.
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Women political leaders, journalists, activists, and women of intersecting identities are those with the heightened risk of experiencing online violence. Such behaviour pushes women to stop using the internet and other facets of technology, i.e., it creates a ‘chilling effect’ as women’s voices are “silenced, discredited and censored”.
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Patriarchal control over women’s bodies, male authority and entitlement and rampant trivializing of violence ensures that such violence against girls and women persists, the report states.
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Defining VAGW comprehensively would allow stakeholders to know what they are tackling. To stop predatory behaviour online, governments must amend existing definitions and laws on violence to accommodate its prevalence online. According to this report, Australia and Mexico have been implemented laws to prevent online VAWG. The impact of such laws is gradual, but definite.
Focus and factoids by Manas Pimpalkhare.
PARI Library’s health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.
वस्तुस्थिती
लेखक
United Nations Women
स्वामित्व हक्क
United Nations Women
प्रकाशनाची तारीख
2022