UN: 9.4 million Mexican women, victims of cyberbullying

Women and girls face different types of violence in different spaces, digital is no exception, as warned by UN Women in its report “Violence against women and girls in the digital space”, since its data makes visible that cyberbullying affects to about 9.4 million women in Mexico.

The most vulnerable ages for women are between 18 and 30 years, since according to the report they are the most attacked in digital spaces.

The types of violence that women can experience in digital environments can be different, one of them being doxing, which according to the definition made by the Cyber ​​Police, is a type of online harassment that involves the disclosure of someone’s personal information, such as your real name, address, job or other identifying information, and its public exposure, usually on the Internet.

This situation of cyberbullying is very frequent, experienced by both women and men in 2021 according to the Module on Cyberbullying carried out by INEGI in 2021, showing that most contacts were made through false identities (36.7 and 34.5%, respectively).

Sexual harassment through digital media is another form of violence among the most common, since data from the report ensures that women in the age range of 18 to 24 years have a high probability of suffering sexual harassment in addition to physical threats online .

Sexual advances occupy 40.3% of the harassment of women on digital platforms, while receiving unsolicited photos and videos with sexual content represent 32.8% of the cases.

Feminist collectives such as ciberseguras recommend that in order to be prepared for cases of cyberbullying, it is necessary to keep digital equipment clean and healthy by reviewing and putting security keys on our data.

Choosing strong passwords, carefully reading the terms of use and privacy policies that establish a contractual relationship between users and the companies that offer digital services, becomes essential in digital spaces.

However, taking security measures can make it difficult when it comes to addressing the issue of cyberbullying with minors.

According to data from the report (In)Safe Online: Girls’ and Young Women’s Experiences of Online Bullying’, prepared by the NGO Plan International, more than half of the girls surveyed around the world said they had been victims of abuse or harassment through some virtual platform.

According to the survey carried out in 22 countries around the world, 52% of girls and young women have suffered harassment online, among which threatening messages, sexual harassment and dissemination of private images without consent stand out; 64% of all people surveyed know someone who has suffered harassment, abuse or violence, and the main concern of young people is the dissemination of their images, videos.

In the case of girls and adolescents, some organizations consider paying attention to the phenomenon of grooming, a practice in which an adult pretends to be a minor on the Internet or tries to establish contact with children and adolescents that gives rise to a relationship of trust, later moving on to emotional control and, finally, to blackmail for sexual purposes according to the National Institute of Cybersecurity.

This type of cyberbullying of a sexual nature is one of the most common, as confirmed by the figures in the report, where 40.3% of cyberbullying are inclined towards sexual innuendos, and photos or videos with unsolicited sexual content make up 32.8%. of cyberbullying cases.

The National System for the Comprehensive Protection of Girls, Boys and Adolescents (SIPINNA) issued some recommendations to avoid and combat cyberbullying in girls and boys, which highlight the literacy that both parents and children should have about digital environments.

Limiting their time on digital platforms, helping them protect their accounts with good passwords, approaching their activities in a non-hostile manner, as well as using applications that help monitor the activity of minors, are just some measures to avoid cyberbullying.

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