(52) Online harassment of women at risk of becoming 'established norm', study finds

Link:  http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/mar/08/online-harassment-of-women-at-risk-of-becoming-established-norm-study

 

Summary:

 

Harassment of women online is at risk of becoming “an established norm in our digital society”, with women under 30 particularly vulnerable, according to the creators of a new Australian study. Harassment ranged from unwanted contact, trolling, and cyberbullying to sexual harassment and threats of rape and death. Women under 30 were overrepresented in every category. Researchers found that women received twice as many death threats and threats of sexual violence as men. The findings suggested that women believed that online abuse was a growing problem and felt powerless to act over it. The findings showed a need for greater awareness and collaboration between the IT industry and law enforcement agencies – before online harassment became “an established norm in our digital society”. The findings will likely fuel the argument that social networks such as Twitter and Facebook need to take greater responsibility for harassment on their platforms.

 

Key data/statistical information:

 

• Australian research finds that nearly half of all women report experiencing abuse or harassment online, and 76% of those under 30
• Nearly half the 1,000 respondents in the research by the digital security firm Norton had experienced some form of abuse or harassment online
• Seventy per cent of women said online harassment was a serious problem in 2016 and 60% said that it was getting worse; more than half the women surveyed felt the police needed to start taking victims seriously
• But 38% of those who had experienced online harassment chose to ignore it, and only 10% reported it to police
• Harassment is overwhelmingly taking place on social media, which facilitates 66% of cases – three times as many as by email (22%) or text (17%); twenty-seven per cent of the women surveyed changed the privacy settings of their accounts after their experience

What's my view?



One of the downsides of new and digital media becoming so great is the harassement that people will face on-line. It seems that women seem to be harassed the most on social media through the comment sections or people e-mailing and texting harmful or sexual messages. Personally, I think that the rise in sexual harassement has been brought about through the increase in communication on social networking sites, which created 'trolls', but also the new wave of feminism. Women feel powerful now when they are sexualised and feel it is okay to upload seductive pictures on-line. By doing this, women need to understand that there is a risk of harmful comments and harassement from people.