The issue of gender-based violence is being exacerbated through the perpetrators’ use of technology, including social media, phones, iPads, tablets, spyware, secret CCTV cameras and GPS tracking systems in cars.
This was highlighted by Women, Children and Social Protection Minister Lynda Tabuya while opening the three-day Pacific Cyber Safety Symposium in Suva recently.
The symposium aims to highlight the issue of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) exacerbated by the emergence of digital technologies.
While local and regional data was limited because of the lack of resources and awareness of the issue, Ms Tabuya said global data indicated a staggering 85 per cent of women and girls faced abuse online.
Ms Tabuya said while the evidence on the impact of increased connectivity was limited, regional reports highlighted that for children, online harms, cyberbullying and child exploitation were increasing.
She said the misuse of social media and other digital technologies had given rise to new forms and manifestations of gender-based violence.
The minister said the new technology had greatly expanded the scale, speed and reach of content shared online, which could exacerbate pre-existing forms of intersectional gender-based violence.
Meanwhile, Pacific Community official Mereseini Rakuita said shadowing the greatness of the internet was the real threat that TFGBV was to the lives of users and, in particular, the lives of women and girls.
Ms Tabuya said the digital world held immense potential to amplify the voices of women, girls and gender-diverse individuals.
“At the same time, the misuse of social media platforms and other digital technologies by those who perpetrate abuse online has given rise to new forms and manifestations of gender-based violence.
“And new technologies have greatly expanded the scale, speed, and reach of content shared online, which can exacerbate pre-existing forms of intersectional gender-based violence.
“The recognition of TFGBV as a form of gender-based violence is a necessary step to addressing the issue, what we must necessarily follow is awareness at national level and policy options for addressing it in national contexts.”
