Technology-facilitated gender-based violence

About

TFGBV can happen through a variety of technology and digital platforms including: 

TFGBV can include:

• online threats or insults
• online harassment
• stalking someone using GPS or social media
• forcing a partner to share passwords
• sharing someone’s sexual images without consent
• hacking
• surveillance/tracking
• impersonating, harassment/spamming
• revenge porn
• malicious distribution
• denial of services

Impacts

The impacts of TFGBV can be as severe and long-lasting as those of in-person violence. Harms resulting from TFGBV may be:

TFGBV can also increase needs for health care, judicial, and social services.^{Footnote 1} 

TFGBV can negatively impact a person’s ability to exercise free expression, disrupt their sense of security, violate their human rights and privacy, and impact their ability to fully participate in economic, social, and democratic life.^{Footnote 2} 

TFGBV is unique in that a perpetrator can virtually follow a victim/survivor everywhere, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and reach them in places where they have traditionally been or felt safe, like at home.

Other specific characteristics of TFGBV include:

• the potential for anonymity
• speed (the ease with which information can be known and spread can escalate the violence quickly)
• increased access to the victim/survivor
• larger audience
• the virtual impossibility of eliminating harmful content
• excessive contact
• invasion of privacy

How to respond

If you experience or witness TFGBV, there are ways you can respond. 

For further information on how to safely respond to TFGBV visit the resources section below. 

Facts

While technology and its uses and impacts keep changing, there are some key facts to consider:

Affected populations

• According to 2018 self-reported data, women were significantly more likely than men to report having experienced unwanted behaviour online in the past 12 months (18% vs. 14%, respectively)^{Footnote 3} . 
• In 2018, women were also more likely than men to report having experienced unwanted behaviours online that were sexual in nature, such as receiving unwanted sexually suggestive or explicit images or messages (11% vs. 7%), or being pressured to send, share or post sexually suggestive or explicit images or messages (4% vs. 2%).^{Footnote 3} 
• As with other types of gender-based violence (GBV), experiences of unwanted behaviours online in 2018 were more common among young women, with one-third (33%) of women aged 15 to 24 having experienced at least one instance in the past 12 months.^{Footnote 3} 
• Half (50%) of bisexual women indicated that they had experienced online harassment in 2018, while the prevalence was similar between lesbian women (21%) and heterosexual women (18%).^{Footnote 3} 
• In 2018, four in ten (40%) bisexual men and more than one-quarter (28%) of gay men had experienced online harassment in the past 12 months, compared with 12% of heterosexual men.^{Footnote 3}

Protective measures

• Women were more likely than men to have taken a protective measure online due to harassment in 2018 (28% versus 19%).^{Footnote 3} 
  • Protective or avoidance measures online can include limiting one’s Internet use or participation on social media, blocking others, deleting accounts or changing usernames, among other potential actions taken by an individual to protect themselves against harassment online.

Cyberbullying

• Among Internet users in Canada, approximately 17% of the population aged 15 to 29 reported having experienced cyberbullying or cyberstalking at some point between 2009 and 2014, representing about 1.1 million people.^{Footnote 4} 
• Results from a non-representative survey of trans youth in Canada conducted in 2014 show that among younger respondents (ages 14 to 18) 39% said someone had made them feel unsafe online, and 33% said they had been bullied online in the past 12 months. 
• Among older trans youth (ages 19 to 25), 44% reported having received threatening or aggressive emails or messages, 40% having been the target of hateful comments, and 30% having been cyberbullied.^{Footnote 5}

Resources 

For youth and parents

• Find resources on Online violence.
• The Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Centre for Youth Crime Prevention provides age-appropriate information, tools and resources. 
• Public Safety Canada’s Cyberbullying webpage has links to resources for teens and parents. 
• PREV Net has many resources funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada for youth, parents and educators on youth dating violence and the impacts of TFGBV.

For adults

• Provincial and territorial resources on gender-based violence 
• Tech Safety Canada is a WAGE-funded toolkit providing additional information about tech-facilitated violence laws and resources for victims and survivors of TFGBV.