Recently, Belfast found itself in the spotlight. The city was found to be one of the most dangerous places for women in Europe, as femicide reached devastating levels with more than 42 women and girls having died violently since the beginning of 2017. The recent murder of Mary Ward in October 2024, the fourth woman to be killed in Northern Ireland in the space of six weeks, brought the growing issue of violence against women and girls to the forefront. 2023 saw over 33,000 domestic abuse incidents alongside more than 4,000 sexual violence and abuse reports made to police, highlighting the need for a new strategy that tackled the root causes of gender-based violence.
In response to such shocking statistics, the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG) strategy was introduced, focusing on prevention, protection, collaboration, and making improvements to the justice system. Having first been proposed in 2021, the EVAWG strategy fills a longstanding gap as Northern Ireland had no strategy in this area, unlike the Uk and the Republic of Ireland. Detective Chief Superintendent Lindsay Fisher of the PSNI highlighted the importance of a change in traditional strategy stating, ‘violence against women and girls remains a plague on our society and a problem that we cannot simply arrest our way out of’.
Clearly, violence against women in the traditional sense remains a pressing issue, but the exponential rise of technology in our everyday lives has brought with it a new dimension to this problem.
Geographical boundaries have been broken down through instant communication channels as the world we live in becomes increasingly interconnected through the internet and social media. While this has undoubtedly brought numerous new opportunities for positive development, the potential for harm cannot be underestimated. This applies to the issue of gender violence, as these new technologies have unfortunately exacerbated gendered violence, providing opportunities for harassment, intrusion and surveillance. The digital age has brought with it forms of digital violence ranging from online harassment, cyberstalking and the sharing of revenge porn. However, it has been argued that such digital violence should not be viewed as distinctly separate from gender violence occurring offline. Instead, digital violence should be seen as part of a ‘continuum of violence’. This suggests that digital gender violence stems from the offline world, reflecting real-world inequalities being projected to digital spaces.
When discussing digital gender violence, it is crucial to view it through an intersectional perspective. Such violence often overlaps with other forms of discrimination and hate, ranging from ethnicity, religious identity or disability. This mirrors characteristics of offline gender violence. However, key differences emerge between offline and online when one considers factors such as the uneven uptake of technology by women,the disproportionate victimisation of women and the overrepresentation of men as perpetrators. Interestingly, despite these contrasts, the digital world seems to mirror offline behaviour and tendencies, leading to the reinforcement of sexism and gender inequality in communities. Unfortunately both the offline and online worlds appear to contribute to gender violence in the other, creating a destructive cycle.
Considering this, the law has in some ways adapted and evolved to tackle this issue of digital gender-based violence. Due to the nature of technology and its exponential growth, the law has had to firstly devise appropriate terminology to describe an array of different gender-based online harms ranging from ‘online gender-based hate speech’ to ‘virtual rape’. This may appear as a simple task, but its importance cannot be overlooked as existing terminology and the laws that govern such offences in many jurisdictions internationally do not adequately capture the scope, nature or intersection of such harms. Policing the digital space remains an obstacle due to the sheer scale of the digital environment. Two charities known as Fix the Glitch UK and End Violence Against Women Coalition recommended that the UK government designate at least 1% of its Digital Services Tax to enforce existing legislation on online abuse alongside funding police resources and awareness campaigns. The introduction of the Online Safety Act 2023 introduced new offences covering cyberflashing and intimate image abuse and has already seen convictions. In addition, the Act has placed a new range of duties on social media companies and search services, to prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content.
Digital gender-based violence has become increasingly prevalent, according to the United Nations, and the recent Coronavirus pandemic saw a marked increase in the prevalence of such online harm. Even as authorities struggle to contain such harm, technology continues to advance and new, alarming issues have surfaced. The rampant growth of both the availability and complexity of artificial intelligence has brought increased scope for gender-based violence as augmented images may be used to cause harm. The disturbing rise of ‘deep-fake pornography’ has exposed gaps in UK legislation, prompting the government to announce plans to criminalize the creation and distribution of such content. The constant evolution of technology has resulted in the law playing catch up as new obstacles in the fight against digital gender-based violence continue to appear.
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