How do we prevent technology facilitated gender-based violence?

Online and digital technologies are firmly embedded in our lives, and the regular appearance of new and updated digital products, apps and social media platforms shows no sign of slowing.  

As technologies and the way they are used evolve, we need to think about how they can cause harm and what this means for preventing and addressing gendered violence. This includes staying curious about how gendered social norms are shaped and expressed, and how we can identify opportunities to use new technologies and online spaces to disrupt and prevent gendered violence and its drivers.  

It is easier said than done. Addressing technology facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) is increasingly complex. Technologies are enabling users of violence to perpetrate control, abuse and violence in new and fast changing ways: from men using smart fridges to remotely control when their partner can access food, AI chatbots that can validate and endorse an abusers actions, and spyware being used to stalk, harass, monitor and intimidate victim-survivors of domestic and family violence.  

At the same time, social media and other online platforms enable misinformation and disinformation to run unchecked. This includes algorithms that target boys and young men with misogynistic, transphobic, homophobic and other hate-filled views; i.e. the manosphere. TFGBV is not only an issue of women’s safety; it intersects with broader concerns about radicalisation, disinformation and the health of democratic societies.

While rapid changes in technology make it difficult to measure the exact prevalence of TFGBV, we know that the problem is likely widespread, and that women from culturally and racially marginalised backgrounds, young women, women with disabilities and LGBTIQA+ people are at a higher risk of experiencing TFGBV. The pervasive nature of technology means victims cannot easily disengage, while the speed, scale and invisibility of digital abuse intensify its impacts.

The fast pace of tech change and rising reports of TFGBV create a constant ‘catch-up’ issue for addressing harm. Proactive prevention efforts that draw and build on successful prevention practices and how we address the social norms that allow violence to occur, are urgent and required.

Preventing gender-based violence means that we need to target the drivers that enable the violence to occur in the first place. Despite being expressed in different ways through new technology, the drivers of TFGBV are not separate to the drivers of other forms of gender-based violence. 

Condoning violence against women, limiting women’s independence in both public and private life, gender stereotyping, and dominant forms of masculinity all contribute to a culture that emphasizes aggression, dominance, and control. These factors interact with heteronormativity, cisnormativity, racism and ablism, remaining the common, causal factors TFGBV. 

We can apply what we know about what works in prevention gendered violence over many years, to preventing TFGBV. Technology just allows for new ways for people to see and experience harm and can normalise the drivers of violence in other ways, creating more tools for people who use violence to further abuse.  

But technological innovation also gives us ways to disrupt harmful gender norms. Respect Victoria and the eSafety Commissioner recently hosted a forum bringing together 90 researchers, policymakers, online security experts and primary prevention practitioners to explore how we prevention approaches can match the needs of this moment.  

How can we use technology to disrupt the drivers of gendered violence?

Forum participants heard several examples of emerging and promising practice during the forum, including:

• using targeted digital advertising and search optimisation to deliver prevention and deterrence messages director to people using TFGBV
• building workplace cultures that prevent common office systems from being used for sexual harassment
• community-led efforts to prevent dating-app violence used by cisgender men who date transgender women.  

The forum explored the role of system coordination, industry and legal regulation in preventing online harms. This included design and programming that can safeguard new technologies from being misused. Companies often deprioritise this for profit.

Advocacy from organisations like Teach Us Consent focused on regulating recommender algorithms to prevent the spread of harmful content in our feeds. The work of the eSafety Commission aims to shift the responsibility for safety of technological innovation and products on to service providers rather than tech users. Additionally, safety by design principles need to be prioritised by governments and industries.  

It was clear from the forum discussions that ‘safety by design’ principles need to be well thought out, particularly to make sure they provide safety in different ways to different communities. Like gendered violence broadly, TFGBV can be experienced in different ways and can be made worse when mixed with racism, ableism, transphobia and homophobia for example.  

While forum discussions recognised the important role of regulation – it was clear that this is only one aspect of preventing TFGBV. Primary prevention work that supports different communities, in different places, spaces and ways is key to addressing the harmful gender norms that drive TFGBV.

Existing prevention efforts can and are being adapted to focus on TFGBV. While the forum highlighted ways this has been happening, there is still more to explore and test regarding how technology can help address the causes of gendered violence. For example, although we’ve used digital platforms to share campaigns and resources for close to two decades, we need improve how we share the success of prevention initiatives.

These initiatives have worked with social media algorithms to counter abusive and harmful content by promoting messages that directly challenge harmful gender norms and other drivers of gendered violence.

There are important ways that we can develop and implement effective, measurable primary prevention approaches and this is something that can be supported by prevention practitioners, governments and technology industries.  

For people working in preventing gendered violence, practice development includes chances to learn more about digital technologies and online platforms, and how they might be applied in new ways to prevent violence. 

For people working in technology industries, including cyber-security and digital safety agencies, it includes building literacy in how to prevent gendered violence, including through safety by design, and how to bring regulations like the proposed Digital Duty of Care legislation to life.    

Keeping primary prevention on the agenda when addressing online harm

Respect Victoria’s work to ensure primary prevention is central to discussions of online harm include:

• championing ongoing and increased investment into innovative program design and evaluations of programs that target TFGBV and online harm
• recommending to the Inquiry into Anti-LGBTIQA+ Hate Crimes in Victoria for a continued focus on online misogyny, social media algorithms and the influence of disinformation on the rise of online hate towards LGBTIQA+ people and other minoritised groups
• ensuring our campaigns such as What Kind of Man Do You Want to Be? maintain a focus on the harms of the manosphere and what young men can do to challenge harmful gender norms online
• building on our research on young people, social media and image autonomy, identifying protective factors for keeping young people safe from harms like deepfake abuse
• collaborating with community organisations to ensure Respect Ballarat has a focus on challenging manosphere ideologies
• continuing critical TFGBV prevention work with the eSafety Commissioner, state and national governments, and the primary prevention, early intervention and response sector
• recommending the Federal Government place a stronger focus on preventing TFGBV in the Second Action Plan of the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children.