What is Cybersafe
CYBERSAFE is a 30-month project funded by the European Union. Nine project partners from various European countries have developed and promote an innovative experiential educational prevention programme – the CYBERSAFE Toolkit – that includes playful online tools, to address the issue of online violence against women and girls among young people (13–16 years old), in a classroom setting. CYBERSAFE promotes healthy relationships and gender equality online. The CYBERSAFE Toolkit provides information and tools to prepare and facilitate four workshops on the issues of gender-based online violence, in order to raise awareness and to encourage and support young people in safe and responsible online behaviour.
NEWS
- CYBERSAFE: Conference on changing attitudes among teenagers on cyber violence against women and girls
The CYBERSAFE Conference on changing attitudes among teenagers on cyber violence against women and girls will be happening online on November 9, 2021. The Conference will present the main findings and outcomes of the CYBERSAFE… Read more: CYBERSAFE: Conference on changing attitudes among teenagers on cyber violence against women and girls - Meet Our Partners
Women’s Support and Information CentreWomen’s Support and Information Centre (WSIC) is a non-profit organization, founded in 2002 as a first shelter in Estonia that focused on supporting women suffering from violence.WSIC focuses on creating conditions… Read more: Meet Our Partners - Online Violence: Useful Resources for Parents During the Pandemic
Children are at increased risk of experiencing online violence according to UNICEF “Under the shadow of COVID-19, the lives of millions of children have temporarily shrunk to just their homes and their screens. We must… Read more: Online Violence: Useful Resources for Parents During the Pandemic
Why focus on cyber violence against women & girls?
Across Europe, digital technology plays a central role in the social lives of young people. It enables them to connect to their peers, to learn, to explore and to express themselves. A big part of their social life takes place online. This provides many positive opportunities but can also cause harm. ‘Missteps’ can be recorded instantly, spread rapidly and viewed by a wide audience. Content can circulate online indefinitely.
Since the creation of social media platforms, violence against women and girls has escalated in the digital sphere. Research shows that women and girls are specifically targeted by online violence. The EU estimates that 1 in 10 women have already experienced a form of online violence from the age of 15 onwards (EIGE 2017).
Online violence against women and girls can take on various shapes such as
- non-consensual sharing of sexual images and videos (for example ‘revenge porn’),
- coercion and threats (such as ‘sextortion’ and ‘grooming’) (Project deSHAME 2017).
- sexualised bullying,
- unwanted sexualisation and exploitation
Both girls and boys can be a victim of these types of online violence, but girls are more likely to be targeted and incidents often result in more negative consequences for girls (e.g. girls are often judged and blamed more harshly than boys for becoming a victim). These types of online violence against women and girls often overlap with offline forms of violence and should be viewed as a continuum, and as an expression of the same phenomenon, often starting offline and reverberating online or vice versa, pushing back women from public spaces to the private sphere.
Sources:
- European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), 2014, “Violence against women: an EU-wide survey”
- Policy Department for Citizen’s Rights and Constitutional Affairs – Directorate General for Internal Policies of the Union, Study for the FEMM Committee, 2018 “Cyber violence and hate speech online against women”
Full name of Project:
Changing Attitudes among teenagers on Cyber Violence against Women and Girls
Project Number:
810264
Project Period:
December 2018 – June 2021
