Digital abuse
WHAT IS DIGITAL ABUSE?
Digital abuse is a form of domestic abuse in which an abuser uses technology to monitor, stalk, harass, threaten, control or impersonate another person. Digital abuse can happen to anyone, but it most often happens alongside other types of domestic abuse such as psychological, physical or sexual.
In our digital age, use of technology to harass and abuse has become more common. Research conducted by Refuge in 2021 found that 1 in 3 women in the UK have experienced online abuse (perpetrated on social media or other online platforms) at some point in their lives.
Digital abuse can also occur outside of intimate partner relationships, you can be a victim of digital abuse from friends, family, colleagues, or even someone unknown to you.
DIGITAL ABUSE CAN INCLUDE
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Monitoring personal emails and texts.
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Monitoring your location.
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Insisting on you sharing your passwords.
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Monitoring/using your social media accounts without permission.
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Looking through your phone frequently, including pictures, texts and outgoing calls.
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Sending abusive or threatening messages over social media.
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Impersonating you over social media.
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Sharing intimate photos or videos of you without consent. This is called image-based sexual abuse or can often be referred to as revenge pornography.
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Using GPS locators or spyware on your devices to cyber stalk you.
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Taking away your control of smart home devices such as cameras, lights, thermostats etc.
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Controlling your bank accounts.
Monitoring and Stalking
Like other types of abuse digital abuse is used to control. Cyber stalking can involve: stealing or demanding to know your passwords, looking through your phone or computer without permission, using location tagging or spyware to monitor and track you, hacking of your phone or email, impersonating you online, and/or remotely controlling your smart home devices to intimidate you.
Possessiveness and Control
You have a right to decide how you use social media, your photos and who you wish to follow/communicate with online. Possessiveness and control can include restricting who you can text, message, follow or be friends with; demanding your constant attention through technology or making you feel unsafe for not responding to messages immediately.
Sexual Coercion/Revenge Pornography
Sexual coercion is unwanted sexual activity that happens when someone is pressured, tricked, threatened, or forced in a non-physical way. When sexual coercion occurs digitally, for example, someone demanding you take or send explicit photos or videos you aren’t comfortable with, this can lead to image based sexual abuse, or revenge pornography.
Revenge Porn is a type of digital abuse which includes the sharing of private sexual materials, either photos or videos, of another person, without their consent and with the purpose of causing distress/humiliation.
How to protect yourself from digital abuse
Everyone has a right to privacy on and offline. If you are experiencing digital abuse, here is a useful article about how to cover your tracks online.
