IGF 2021 WS #139 Mind the Gender Gap OR Mend the Gender Gap

Time
Thursday, 9th December, 2021 (15:50 UTC) - Thursday, 9th December, 2021 (17:20 UTC)
Room
Conference Room 6

Organizer 1: David Wright, UK Safer Internet Centre
Organizer 2: Evangelia Daskalaki, Insafe / FORTH
Organizer 3: Deborah Vassallo, Insafe

Speaker 1: David Wright, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: juliana cunha, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 3: Karuna Nain, Private Sector, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 4: Zuzanna Szcześniak, Civil Society, Eastern European Group

Additional Speakers

Additional Speaker - Maria Spyraki is a Member of the European Parliament since 2014. At the European Elections of 2014 she was elected first Member of the European Parliament with Nea Demokratia and she joined the European People’s Party. (maria.spyraki_20033 | Internet Governance Forum (intgovforum.org))

Moderator

Deborah Vassallo, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Online Moderator

Evangelia Daskalaki, Intergovernmental Organization, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Rapporteur

Deborah Vassallo, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Format

Panel - Auditorium - 90 Min

Policy Question(s)

Ensuring a safe digital space: How should governments, Internet businesses and other stakeholders protect citizens, including vulnerable citizens, against online exploitation and abuse?
Roles and responsibilities in protecting against cyber-attacks: Which stakeholders hold responsibility for protecting national governments, businesses and citizens against cyber-attacks?

Ensuring a safe digital space: How should governments, Internet businesses and other stakeholders protect citizens, including vulnerable citizens, against online exploitation and abuse? All the research and evidence suggests that women and girls are disproportionately victims of discrimination and abuse online. To ensure a safe digital space can only occur once this imbalance whilst this abuse exists.

This workshop is uniquely placed to hear from a diverse array of speakers, spanning perspective that span age, policy, industry and geography as well as hearing from victims of this discrimination. Clearly it is everyone's responsibility to resolve this discrimination and the workshop will of innovation and examples that challenge this abuse.

Following this input, the workshop will split the audience into groups (lead by panellists) to discuss and debate a range of issues based on their experience and interest to collect further examples and also hear of other examples that respond to this issue. This will be compiled during he plenary session Evidently it is everyones responsibility and role to address this discrimination to ensure a safe digital space.

SDGs

5.1
5.b
5.c

Targets: Where ever you look, women and girls are disproportionately victims of online violence or abuse online. Why is this? Research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), as part of a collaboration between the University of Exeter and the UK Revenge Porn Helpline revealed a striking gender disparity in intimate image abuse crimes and calls for policy “to acknowledge this crime as a gendered, sexual offence”. Further research conducted in the UK, Australia and New Zealand in 2019 further looked into this highlighting the shattering and life threatening impact that Image Based abuse has on victims, particularly on women and girls. The panel and discussion will challenge the clear discrimination against all women and girls that occurs online. It will explore examples of the use of technology in this regard and to promote the empowerment of women and girls. The debate will conclude sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels.

Description:

Where ever you look, women and girls are disproportionately victims of online violence or abuse online. Why is this?

Research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), as part of a collaboration between the University of Exeter and the UK Revenge Porn Helpline revealed a striking gender disparity in intimate image abuse crimes and calls for policy “to acknowledge this crime as a gendered, sexual offence”.

Based on data from the UK Revenge Porn Helpline, the report explored the differing experience of men and women as victims of intimate image abuse and concluded that an overwhelmingly disproportionate number of victims are female and that the crime is perpetrated in different ways according to the victim’s gender.

Further research conducted in the UK, Australia and New Zealand in 2019 further looked into this highlighting the shattering and life threatening impact that Image Based abuse has on victims, particularly on women and girls.

The impact of the last year and Covid restrictions imposed across the global has amplified this. The UK Revenge Porn Helpline has reported a doubling of cases reported in 2020 compared to 2019 with evidence of cases being aggravated by lock down restrictions. Thus, It has long been recognized in international human rights discourse that systemic discrimination and abuse can limit the ability of women to seek, receive, impart, and use information and participate fully in society. Women and girls who experience it, but also those who witness it online, may self‐censor and discontinue their participation in online spaces.

The technology companies that govern the commercial Internet —telecommunications providers, search engines, content hosts, social media platforms— play a central role in mediating communication between Internet users, addressing gender‐based violence online will require the intervention of them to prevent and combat abuse across networks and services.

The panel will discuss these issues, in particular image based online abuse and explore the impacts on women and girls.

It is, however, not enough to understand the issues, but to identify the strategies and solutions required to address these issues and the gender imbalance. The panel will discuss and highlight how technology and communities are fighting back.

Whereas on one hand social media platforms are thriving with advanced technological software to identify and stop the sharing of non consensual intimate images, a different approach is currently being adopted for online hate speech directed towards women and girls. A recent example of this was the Suez Canal incident, following the ship obstruction, fake information was circulating the internet and emerged on different social media platforms that the ship captain was a woman. In most of the articles images of Egypt’s first female ship captain which were taken from a news story released earlier were attached to the article. The comments accompanying these articles were very degrading and sexual. In fact in an interview with the BBC, she has stated that “I felt I might be targeted because I’m a successful woman in my field”. The article was written in English thus it circulated internationally. The comments targeting this woman mainly because of her gender were online for a long time and in different languages. Such incidents are a proof that women are being targeted because of their gender and more needs to be done to prevent the sharing of fake information targeting women and allowing comments targeting women from being uploaded.

Violence against women and girls online is a human rights violation and a universal issue that can not be addressed by individual states alone.

Are we minding the gender gap or are we mending the gender gap?

No one should suffer from online abuse and victimisation

Expected Outcomes

Raise awareness on different forms of online violence towards women and girls amongst them the non consensual sharing of intimate images, child sexual abuse material and gender based online hate speech.

Discuss methods and ways on how to prevent violence from happening and ways can women and girls reach out for help. Best practice scenarios.

Discussion about the role of technology companies that govern the commercial Internet

Call for a set of preventive measures in the education sector and ways to encourage private companies and the media to set self-regulatory standards about sexiest hate speech

As in previous years, Insafe has organised and delivered effective panel sessions with diverse contributions from specialists in their field that spark and prompt debate to engage the audience, organising groups to discuss the issues presented. This session will mirror this approach

The panel session will hear from the the range of speakers covering diversity of perspective, age, geography and context. This will present a variety of views.

The session will then break into small groups, each discussing a specific perspective, allowing the audience to engage with the debate relevant to their understanding or interest. The groups will then feedback in the plenary.

Insafe has a good record of organising this style of session at previous IGF

Online Participation

Usage of IGF Official Tool. Additional Tools proposed: Some speakers will participate remotely

Key Takeaways (* deadline 2 hours after session)
Evidence shared discloses that women and girls are disproportionately victimised online. Inconsistency in application of legislation with regards non consensual intimate image abuse. Challenging for platform policies to encapsulate the spectrum of global cultures
Availability of new technology tools that support victims of non consensual intimate image abuse. Girls specifically find obtaining support difficult. There are some wonderful sources of support, with specific references to Safer Internet Centres
Call to Action (* deadline 2 hours after session)
Join the 190 countries across the world in participating in Safer Internet Day – Feb 8th 2022. Progress is required by Governments to harmonise legislation to protect victims of NCII and specifically women and girls
All victims should have easy access to redress. Strengthening peer support networks for girls who are victims of online gender based violence. Improved digital literacy, predominantly through a planned and continuous school curriculum, to younger aged children before they venture online