It comes as no surprise to the thinking Catholic that since the onset of the sexual revolution we
have had to face an ever-increasing array of sexual problems. One has only to
think of the tremendous increase in the number of illegitimate
births and abortions, sexually transmitted diseases, opposition to censorship
of pornography (especially on the Internet), and the resulting sexual addiction
(in some extreme instances resulting in murder). Consider too the tremendous
blows to marriage and the family done by adultery, the battle over the
homosexual lifestyle in the United States, Canada and Europe (now to the point
of the redefinition of marriage under the law); the increasing incidences of
sexual harassment, child pornography on the Internet, Internet predators, the collegiate "rape culture", and of course, the divorce rate. Read the following and weep (or pray):
Online harassment of women at risk of becoming
'established norm', study finds
Australian research finds that nearly half of all women report
experiencing abuse or harassment online, and 76% of those under 30
Monday 7 March 2016 14.01 ESTLast modified on Monday 7
March 201614.15 EST
Harassment of women online is at risk of
becoming “an established norm in our digital society”, with women under 30
particularly vulnerable, according to the creators of a new Australian study.
Nearly half the 1,000 respondents in the
research by the digital security firm Norton had experienced
some form of abuse or harassment online. Among women under 30, the incidence
was 76%.
Harassment ranged from unwanted contact,
trolling, and cyberbullying to sexual harassment and threats of rape and
death. Women under 30 were overrepresented in
every category.
One in seven – and one in four women aged
under 30 – had received general threats of physical violence. Almost one in ten
women under 30 had experienced revenge porn and/or “sextortion”.
The online quantitative survey was carried out
with 1,053 women in Australia aged 18 and over in February this year.
Similar research was done on men’s experience
of harassment online, but those findings were held off in order to publicise
International Women’s Day, as well as the fact that the issue is
disproportionately experienced by women.
Researchers found that women received twice as
many death threats and threats of sexual violence as men.
One in four lesbian, bisexual and transgender
women who had suffered serious harassment online said their sexual orientation
had been the target. One in five online harassment cases attacked a woman’s
physical appearance.
The findings suggested that women believed that
online abuse was a growing problem and felt powerless to act over it.
Seventy per cent of women said online
harassment was a serious problem in 2016 and 60% said that it was getting
worse. More than half the women surveyed felt the police needed to start taking
victims seriously.
But 38% of those who had experienced online
harassment chose to ignore it, and only 10% reported it to police.
Melissa Dempsey, senior director for the Asia
Pacific region of Norton by Symantec, said the findings showed a need for
greater awareness and collaboration between the IT industry and law enforcement
agencies – before online harassment became “an established norm in our digital
society”.
Harassment is overwhelmingly taking place on
social media, which facilitates 66% of cases – three times as many as by email
(22%) or text (17%). Twenty-seven per cent of the women surveyed changed the
privacy settings of their accounts after their experience.
The findings will likely fuel the argument
that social networks such as Twitter and Facebook need to take greater
responsibility for harassment on their platforms.
Twitter announced in February a renewed push to
tackle abuse and threats made on the network. Around the same time, Facebook
launched a tool to offer supportto users perceived to
be at risk of suicide.
Tara Moss, a Canadian-Australian author and
advocate who partnered with Norton to help design the survey, said online abuse
was just one form of violence against women, all of which needed to be
addressed.
With nearly 96,000 followers on Twitter, she
said she had often been the target of abuse online, and received a spike in
threats when she was made a patron of the Full Stop Foundation, tackling rape
and sexual violence.
Georgie Harman, the chief execution of beyondblue,
a long-time partner with Norton, said the mental health organisation’s work was
increasingly being carried out digitally.
She was especially concerned by figures that
more than one in five (22%) of respondents who had experienced online harassment
felt depressed and that 5% felt suicidal.
Harman said 65% of contact made to beyondblue
was by women.
The Norton study coincides with a separate
survey of about 1,000 women working in the Australian media, which found that more than 40% had been
harassed on social media in the course of their work.
The survey by Women in Media, an advocacy
group supported by the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, found that 41%
said they had been harassed, bullied or trolled on social media while engaging
with audiences.
Several were silenced or changed career as a
result of this harassment, which ranged included death threats and stalking.
Sixty per cent of respondents agreed that it was more likely to be directed at
women than men.
Only 16% of respondents were aware of their
employer’s strategies to deal with threats on social media.
