Explainer: How can we protect girls and young women from digital violence?
Date:
“I had a private Instagram account since I was 13. Everything was fine until I started receiving unwanted photos and requests to send my own. I was threatened with rape and death if I didn’t comply. It was terrifying. Maybe they were joking, but it was very traumatic for me. I didn’t know who to talk to, so I turned to a psychologist and deleted my Instagram account. It went on for two years, and no one stopped it. Eventually, they found out who the perpetrator was. He was a classmate with behavioural issues. I was lucky to have supportive parents. Later, I joined an organization that raises awareness about gender-based violence.”
This is the story of Lina1, a 16-year-old girl who suffered from digital violence, specifically doxing, when personal information is shared online with malicious intent, and cyberbullying.
As we mark the International Day of the Girl on 11 October, a day to celebrate girls everywhere, UN Women shines a light on a growing threat that limits their voices, actions, and leadership: digital violence. This explainer highlights what digital violence looks like and offers key actions each of us can take to protect girls and young women from this rising threat.
What is digital violence?
From image-based abuse and deepfake pornography to gendered disinformation, digital violence is one of the fastest-growing threats today. The rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is only making things worse, amplifying misogyny and spreading targeted hate at scale, undermining rights and freedoms.
More than half of women (53.2%) in the Europe and Central Asia region have experienced some form of digital violence at least once in their lives, according to UN Women’s 2023 research "The Dark Side of Digitalization: Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.”
In the Western Balkans, one in two women has faced digital violence. Age is a major risk factor: young women aged 18-24 are four times more likely to experience digital violence than women over 65.
Digital violence takes many forms, such as inappropriate sexual advances or sexual content on social media; pressure to share intimate or explicit images or messages; non-consensual sharing (or threats to share) private content; online stalking and digital surveillance. It has serious consequences for girls’ mental health and well-being, often leaving them anxious, unsafe, or embarrassed. Protecting girls requires collective action from governments, tech companies, civil society, the media, and international organizations. Based on UN Women’s 2023 research, here are some key steps forward:
1. Strengthen laws and policies
Governments should develop and enforce legislation addressing digital violence. Laws must hold perpetrators accountable, even across borders. Tech companies, including social media and gaming platforms, should align their community guidelines with international human rights standards.
2. Improve coordination among stakeholders
National institutions must work together to build a unified response to digital violence. International cooperation should enable girls to report violence to police in their own countries, regardless of where perpetrators reside.
3. Promote prevention across society
Digital literacy should be part of national education and gender equality policies. Men and boys must be engaged to understand digital violence, positive masculinities, and practice non-violent communication. The tech sector and media should help shift social norms, foster safe and respectful digital spaces, report accurately on digital violence, and avoid minimizing or romanticizing harmful acts.
4. Strengthen response mechanisms
Governments and civil society must ensure accessible, survivor-centered services. Tech platforms must proactively, promptly, and effectively monitor and remove hate speech, sexist and misogynistic content, and incidents of digital violence, while improving reporting systems and cooperating with law enforcement.
5. Empower civil society and women’s rights organizations
Governments, international and regional organizations should support civil society with sustainable funding and include them in policymaking and programmes on digital violence.
6. Expand data and evidence
Better data leads to better solutions. International and regional organizations should take the lead in improving data collection on digital violence. Public budgets and international aid allocated to prevention and response to digital violence should be monitored to ensure sufficient allocation.
To help make the digital world a safer, more empowering space for every girl child, the new regional programme “EU4 Gender Equality – Women’s Economic Empowerment and Ending Violence Against Women,” funded by the European Union and implemented across the Westen Balkans, will build the capacity of women’s civil society organizations on digital violence and legal frameworks; foster collaboration between women's entrepreneurship networks, tech companies, and service providers to develop innovative prevention and response tools; train media outlets and promote ethical reporting; partner with tech companies to regulate and monitor digital violence; and conduct research on women’s participation in the digital economy and their experiences on online violence.
1 The name has been changed to protect the individual’s identity, and the testimony was excerpted from UN Women’s 2023 research "The Dark Side of Digitalization: Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.”