Category > Cyber Abuse, Violence & Abuse
Cyber Violence… KNOW YOUR ENEMY!
Cyberbullying and cyberstalking are criminal acts with sanctions including fines or prison!
Cyber Bullying
Most frequently this is peer to peer. Therefore, this is often considered a form of peer violence.
… uses technology to harass, embarrass, humiliate or insult another person; repeatedly sends hurtful messages and starts rumours to shame and humiliate.
Their intention is to target and exclude a specific person.
Most frequently this is peer to peer. Therefore, this is often considered a form of peer violence.
The most severe consequence for the victim of the cyberbully is suicide.
Cyberstalker
… uses technology to spy on, harass and collect information about another person, in order to scare and blackmail them.
Their most frequent victims are girls and women who they are allegedly “blindly in love with”, whether in a relationship with them or not, especially if they have recently split up. This is why it is often considered a “prolonged” form of violence in a partner relationship.
Their intention is to have the person they are stalking completely under their control and be focused on what the cyberstalker is doing.
The most severe consequence for the victim of the cyberstalker is becoming a victim of homicide.
Both forms of abuse have existed long before the Internet, but today technology makes it easier for the bully and the stalker to “advance” their abusive behavior to intimidate and shame their victims. Today, both the bully and stalker rarely abuse without using any technology.
DON'T BE A FOOL, DOXXING
IS NOT COOL
DOXXING refers to the online researching and publishing of private information on the internet to publicly expose and shame the person targeted.
This may include private phone numbers, home address, names of family members. Once the information is out there, who knows what other internet users may do with them. Victims of doxxing report being extensively harassed online, attacked offline, as well as their identity being stolen as a result of their personal information becoming publicly available. Doxxing is sometimes part of an orchestrated online attack on a person.
Sexual Harrassment
Sexual harassment offline and online is a reality for many young women. Online sexual harassment can take the form of comments, videos, photos, and graphic images of sexual nature aimed at vilifying women and creating conditions of humiliation and sexualisation.
Offensive, sexist and insulting words such as “slut”, “whore”, “cunt”, “bitch” can be used, as well as commentaries on women’s physical appearances.
It can make a person feel threatened, exploited, coerced, humiliated, upset, sexualized or discriminated.
Behaviours of sexual harrassment
- When someone is receiving sexual threats, being forced to participate in sexual behaviour
online or blackmailed with sexual content; - When someone is being targeted by, and systematically excluded from, a group or community, with the use of sexual content that humiliates, upsets or discriminates against them
- When someone receives unwelcomed sexual requests, comments or content (e.g. dickpicks).
