In Focus: 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence

There is #NoExcuse for online abuse

Online and digital spaces should empower women and girls. Yet every day, for millions of women and girls, the digital world has become a minefield of harassment, abuse, and control. 

What can start small, on screens – a message, a comment, or a post – can quickly spiral into a torrent of threats and violence in real life. Private photos are stolen without consent. Lies spread in a matter of seconds. Locations are tracked. AI is weaponized to create deepfakes designed to shame and silence women.

This 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (25 November – 10 December) join us as we rally for a world where technology is a force for equality – not harm.

Behind every statistic are real women and girls

Online violence disproportionately impacts women with high online visibility, such as younger women and women in public life, including journalists, politicians, activists and human rights defenders, facing targeted, coordinated digital attacks aimed at silencing and discrediting them.

Women with limited access to quality digital technologies and connectivity, such as women in rural contexts or in households with limited resources, may also be at greater risk of digital violence due to the control of access to and use of digital devices and energy sources for powering them by perpetrators. They may also be at heightened risk of economic violence or exploitation through digital financial services due to limited digital literacy.

In the Europe and Central Asia region, more than half of women over age 18 who use digital technologies and are present online have experienced at least one form of technology-facilitated violence. The highest prevalence is in the Eastern European countries (64.2%), while prevalence is lower in the Western Balkans (51.0%) and lowest in Central Asia (38.6%).

Age is the strongest risk factor: young women aged 18-24 are four times more likely to experience digital violence than women over 65. They are also disproportionately exposed to offline abuse - 40% of young women faced sexual harassment, stalking, psychological, physical, or sexual violence in the 12 months preceding the UN Women research, compared to 24% of women aged 60 years.

What needs to happen now and how to take action

• Hold perpetrators accountable through better laws and enforcement.
• Make tech companies step up by hiring more women to create safer online spaces, removing harmful content quickly, and responding to reports of abuse.
• Support survivors with real resources by funding women’s rights organizations and movements.
• Invest in prevention and culture change through digital literacy and online safety training for women and girls and programmes that challenge toxic online cultures. It’s time to reclaim our digital spaces and demand a future where technology powers equality.