4. Tackling cyber VAWG: a multi-level approach
4.2 Sensitization: changing societal norms
Article 5 of the CEDAW declares that States have an obligation to “take all appropriate measures to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority
of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women”.
This language is critically important, and its
operationalization truly impactful in terms of changing behaviours. The UN Human Rights Council agrees when it emphasized that “The prevention approach is the more sustainable [approach], focusing on change, whereas the State obligation to protect and punish remains relevant in combating violations”.
“ Anticipate problems and help solve them not only for yourself but for everybody else in the community. Act like a citizen. Not a passive ‘user.’ “
Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder, Global Voice
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Sensitization includes:
• Bringing visibility and positive public
consciousness to the issues to ensure that cyber VAWG online is neither ignored nor trivialized
• Sensitizing the next generation of ICT users; boys and girls; through their parents, teachers and wider communities including police and the justice system
• Breaking down communication barriers and outdated orthodox philosophies in learning environments.
4.2.1 Working towards a broad cultural base of change
Changing social attitudes and social norms is the first step to shifting the way online abuse is understood and the seriousness given to it. The public is in general ignorant about cyber VAWG and therefore less likely to consider it an issue of any consequence.
Given how ubiquitous technology has become, there is a need to acknowledge the
evolution of the digital citizen (sometimes referred to as netizen). This includes media and information literacy, understanding of gender norms, digital footprints, security awareness, and more. There is a need to address social and cultural norms around gender and to bring these efforts into the digital age. In some countries, this can begin in the classroom through the education system, however, in many more countries, this is not an option.
Other initiatives have sought opportunities to engage around these issues through youth as the next generation of internet users, building networks and alliances, and changing awareness and the content online through informal digital literacy programmes.
In particular there is a strong need to focus on violence prevention and community mobilization for zero tolerance for violence against women. Violence prevention works.
Research shows that high school violence prevention programs that work with both boys and girls are highly
effective over the long term. Similar to the anti-bully movement in schools, the
cyberbullying movement
SAFEGUARDS
SENSITIZATION Prevent VAWG through change in societal attitudes & norms
• Society to prevent all forms of VAWG through changing norms, training, learning, campaigning, and community development
• Justice and security/police to integrate Cyber VAWG concerns into all criminal and cyber-security training
Oversight & monitoring to minimise risks for women & girls
• Industry to maintain responsible Internet infrastructure & customer care practices
• Development of technical solutions.Promote due diligence & duty to report abuse
SANCTIONS
Adapt & apply laws & regulations
• Develop laws, regulations and governance mechanisms
• Courts and legal system to enforce compliance and punitive consequences for perpetrators
• Consultations on a cyber civil rights agenda
Networked Intelligence for Development 2015
“Culture is the sphere where we socialize ourselves, and the Internet – global in its reach – is a dimension of that sphere.”
Jeremy Rifkin 6
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has been gaining ground and impact. Positive changes in behaviour have led to awareness and new socialization.
There is an opportunity to use this avenue to integrate cyber VAWG sensitization and prevention.
Examples of such initiatives include:
Tackling Violence Against Women Offline
• The Canadian Women’s Foundation notes that:
“Even years after attending one of our programs, students experienced long-term benefits such as better dating relationships, the ability to recognize and leave an unhealthy relationship, and increased self-confidence, assertiveness, and leadership”.62 Strong advocacy campaigns are vital to change
— workplace harassment and drinking and driving are not acceptable behaviour and subject to serious criminal penalties. In the same way, public education, violence prevention programs, and a strong criminal justice response can bring about an end to online violence against women in Canada63. This type of prevention can be translated seamlessly to online safety measures.
• UN Women and the World Association of Girl Guides and Scouts program: Voices against Violence provides girls, boys, young women, and young men with tools and expertise to understand the root causes of violence in their communities, to educate and involve their peers and communities to prevent such violence, and to learn about where to access support if they experience violence.64
• In Europe, sport has been used as a vehicle to engage youth and change entrenched attitudes on gender equality in a number of countries including Tajikistan, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
• In Latin America, youth-targeted initiatives such as ‘El Valiente No Es Violencia’, a joint communications campaign with MTV, has gained
momentum to establish zero tolerance to violence against women.
• The United Nations Secretary-General’s Campaign UNiTE to End Violence against Women has proclaimed the 25th of each month as ‘Orange Day’, a day to raise awareness and take action against violence against women and girls. Orange Day calls upon activists, governments and UN partners to mobilize people and highlight issues relevant to preventing and ending violence against women and girls, not only once a year, but monthly.65
• Moraba is a mobile phone-based game designed to educate South Africa’s township youth on gender-based violence. Developed by The Afroes Foundation for the UNiTE Campaign and UN Women.
• HeforShe Campaign is a UN Women-initiated solidarity movement that seeks the engagement of men to work with women in achieving gender equality and to challenge traditional notions of both femininity and masculinity. In 2015, Twitter and Vodaphone signed up as Impact Partners.
• In Bangladesh, UNDP helped develop the first ever comprehensive knowledge space on the government’s information portal dedicated to VAW, as well as youth, police and parliamentary engagement in VAW.
• In November 2012, the National Human Rights Commission began a VAW awareness social media campaign targeting youth. In Albania, UNDP launched in 2013 a toll free number for women to report domestic violence.
• Partners for Prevention (P4P) is a multi-country research study on men and violence supported by UNDP which included capacity development for practitioners and decision makers, and communication for social change including support to campaigns that target men for change.
Oversight & monitoring to minimise risks for women & girls
• Industry to maintain responsible Internet infrastructure & customer care practices
• Development of technical solutions.Promote due diligence & duty to report abuse
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• ‘Applying Social Media Tools for the Prevention of Gender-based Violence: Lessons learned from social media communication campaigns to prevent gender-based violence in India, China and Viet Nam’ was launched and disseminated in 2013. This resource consolidates learning from the P4P initiative ‘Engaging Young Men through Social Media for the Prevention of Violence against Women’.
Let’s Talk Men 2.0 is a film series launched in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka with accompanying tools for discussion facilitators. The films are designed to be used for years to come as tools for exploring gender norms and men’s violence, especially with young people.
Tackling Violence Against Women Online
• In India, the Centre for Cyber Victim Counselling develops educational cyber-awareness programs for schools, for parents and for community members such as the police force.
• Women’s Aid in the UK has created a practical guide for victims of online abuse entitled: Digital stalking: a guide to technology risks for victims.
“Just five rules for what you can do on the site:
Don’t spam; Don’t ask for votes or engage in vote manipulation; Don’t post personal information;
No child pornography or sexually suggestive content featuring minors; Don’t break the site or do anything that interferes with normal use of the site.”
• Heartmob is a platform that provides real- time support to individuals experiencing online harassment - and gives bystanders concrete actions they can take to step in and save the day.66
• “Cyber Nirapotta Program’ has built awareness among 2,839 female college students about cyber security by arranging seminars from May 2014 to August 2014. Bangladesh Telecommunication
Regulatory Commission (BTRC) formed a committee with 11 members to prevent the cyber crime.
• Setting up or supporting peer-support networks (e.g. the CyberMentors project from BeatBullying, beatbullying.org) and the development of and education in technical solutions to control abusive behaviour is an appropriate role for industry.
Research in New Zealand suggests that industry should consider not only technical solutions but should also monitor their effectiveness in resolving cyberbullying complaints67
• COST Action on cyberbullying: Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST) is an international network started in October 2008 to tackle “Cyberbullying: coping with negative and enhancing positive uses of new technologies, in relationships in educational settings”. Its purpose is to share expertise on cyberbullying in educational settings, and now includes 28 European countries, has links to Action Poster, books and publications and a Guideline booklet translated into Czech, German and Turkish for preventing cyber-bullying in the school environment.68
• “To make the invisible visible” is the goal of Take Back the Tech! Map it! End it!! The project calls upon women and girls to take control of technology by telling their stories and shaping the narrative. It also seeks to hold witnesses and bystanders accountable. Women and girls can go online and document crimes committed and realise their experiences are not an isolated nor acceptable incidents.69
A broadly-based effective attack on cyber VAWG also needs to aggressively address and attack “victim blaming”. This destructive response needs to be addressed as a primary issue of concern through a
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panoply of educational and learning tools. There is no situation in which a violent act should be accepted or condoned as a result of poor personal judgement and social behaviour (“she should not have been dressed that way/
consumed alcohol/ invited the act upon herself”).
• In May 2013, following a week-long campaign by Women, Action and
the Media, the Everyday Sexism Project and the activist Soraya Chemaly demanded the removal of supposedly humorous content endorsing rape and domestic violence. Facebook responded to concerted protests over content promoting violence against women, but only after fifteen companies, including Nissan, threatened to pull their advertisements if Facebook did not remove profiles that glorified or trivialized violence against women.70 The company in turn determined to update its policies on hate speech and increase accountability of content creators and train staff to be more responsive to complaints, marking a victory for women’s rights activists. “We prohibit content deemed to be directly harmful, but allow content that is offensive or controversial. We
define harmful content as anything organising real world violence, theft, or property destruction, or that directly inflicts emotional distress on a specific private individual (e.g., bullying).”71
Digital Literacy and Citizenship and Gender Relevant and Friendly Content
There are a growing number of initiatives that address digital literacy and citizenship, and to varying degrees cover topics such as online safety and information literacy. These include efforts from civil society like Telecentre.org and ITU which has reached 1 million women with a digital literacy course and Common Sense Media which designed curricula that teaches media literacy as well as digital safety and smarts. The UK initiative iRights provides detailed guidance on online safety, security, right to remove, right to digital literacy including the ability to critique technologies and understand how to negotiate social norms. The private sector has also taken important steps in raising awareness – such as the recent GSMA report on Accelerating Digital Literacy for Women – and training as with the Intel She Will Connect initiative which builds women’s digital literacy and includes modules on digital safety and footprints. There is also a role that the
“Young people are the brokers, traders and advisors of this new knowledge and their voice provides a bridge between what they know and understand, and what researchers need to know and understand to properly inform policy and practice.”
‘Cyberbullying Through the New Media:
Findings from an International Network’
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individual must play in self-regulating, not perpetuating negative gender norms and practices by sharing, watching and listening and by holding media and content providers to account. This is an underlying message of the UNESCO Global Alliance on Gender and Media. 72
Part of the solution to changing online culture is through the creation of gender sensitive and friendly content.
This requires moving beyond digital literacy efforts that teach girls and women how to (safely) consume content, and moves them to the position of content creators and active contributors to and shapers of the online world.
Efforts such as Mozilla’s web literacy clubs place an emphasis not just on privacy and digital citizenship but also on content creation, coding skills and creating meaningful impact on the web. Through a partnership with UN Women a greater emphasis will be placed on reaching girls and women. Global networks and platforms like empowerwomen.org and World Pulse also provide digital literacy skills but also actively work with women to contribute their voice and perspectives on the web, including through blogs and campaigns. More women- friendly content would drive women online according to Egyptian high-income women who did not use the Internet but called for “new websites only for women”
or “dedicated to women,” or women-only chatting.
Somewhat in the same vein, a high-income, university educated Indian professional who does use the Internet wanted cybercafés that are open only to women.73 Safe access matters too.
4.2.2 Sensitization of the law, courts and enforcement officers
Strategies, laws and policies must demand a concerted effort that includes education, awareness raising, and sensitization and community mobilization. They must also contribute to tackling discriminatory stereotypes and attitudes, and they must mandate the research
and knowledge-building necessary to support policy development. However, having laws in place alone is not sufficient. In South Africa, for example, VAWG remains rampant, irrespective of human rights – focused laws such as the Domestic Violence Act No 116 of 1998 and Criminal Law (Sexual Offense and Related Matters) Act No 32 of 2007 framed to protect women against all forms of violence. 74
To effectively combat cyber VAWG, personnel and officials working in the field must have the skills, capacity and sensitivity to apply the spirit and letter of the law in a fully comprehensive manner. This requires that, among others: 75
• Appropriate resources be devoted towards equipment and technological education of personnel employed in public institutions, such as schools and police forces. Individuals, teachers, parents, police, prosecutors and judges need to educate themselves about the technology, the behaviour and the harm inflicted.
• Police forces should be trained, properly resourced and given the necessary powers to reach out to victims to ensure all forms of VAWG in varied settings are recognised, recorded and acted on expeditiously. Following exhaustive reporting on the failures of law enforcement at all levels to comprehend the emotional, professional, and financial toll of misogynistic online intimidation76. US journalist Amanda Hess concludes: “The Internet is a global network, but when you pick up the phone to report an online threat, whether you are in London or Palm Springs, you end up face- to-face with a cop who patrols a comparatively puny jurisdiction. And your cop will probably be a man: according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2008, only 6.5 percent of state police officers and 19 percent of FBI agents were women. And in many locales, police work is still a largely analog affair as 911 calls are immediately
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routed to the local police force, the closest officer is dispatched to respond and he takes notes with pen and paper.” 77
• Encouragingly, there are signs of positive developments in some countries. Dutch law enforcement is stepping up its efforts to combat cybercrime. Every regional police force in the country will train their detectives in digital investigative techniques. More ICT specialists and external experts will be recruited.
Specialized digital detectives will join national and international investigative teams. A “national digital investigations action program” was established in July 2014, with a budget of EUR 1.4 million. Law enforcement however estimated that it needs EUR 30 million a year to effectively intensify the battle against cybercrime.