The deputy delegate of the Government in A Coruña, María Rivas, inaugurated this morning in the Faculty of Law of the UDC a conference on “Visibility, prevention and sanction of digital gender violence”, in which she stressed that “digital platforms, social networks, are becoming unsafe spaces for women, especially for the newest ones where they meet with messages and attitudes whose only purpose is to undermine their integrity and well-being” exercising against them multiple types of violence.
The subdelegate stressed that this digital gender violence is not limited to a specific area, but manifests itself in multiple contexts, including couple relationships, the workplace, the educational environment and social networks.
Rivas also stressed that “victims have to face these multiple forms of discrimination and violence, due to their status as women and the other characteristics that place them in a situation of greater vulnerability in the digital environment.”
Throughout his speech he showed that in an increasingly interconnected and digitalized world, new forms of violence against women and girls appear, online violence that uses digital media, platforms and social networks to spread and create new models, but following very old patterns: harass, humiliate, coerce, control, instil fear.
The data indicate that the most denounced is cyberbullying, followed by control of communications by the couple, control of the use of social networks including the requirement of password disclosure, followed by sexting (sending images of unsolicited sexual content) or sextortion (requirement of images of a sexual nature under threat, coercion or extortion. The media used to exercise this digital gender violence were first the WhastApp, followed by Instagram, email and Facebook.
For all that you are, the Government’s deputy delegate calls on all institutions and the general public to raise awareness, to work to make these violence visible, jointly and in a coordinated way articulating all the mechanisms at our disposal to support and protect the victims.
The reports were given by Ana Ala Catoira, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Vice Dean of International, Institutional and Digitization Relations; José Julio Ferenda Rodríguez, Professor of Constitutional Law at the USC; and Lorena Casal: Professor of Pedagogy and Didactics at the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the USC.
After the institutional inauguration, Ana Ala Catoira, professor of Constitutional Law and dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of A Coruña, spoke. She addressed the different forms of digital violence and detailed different normative and judicial responses that exist against them.
In his speech, he addressed four major problems that gender violence carries through digital media: the general lack of knowledge of this type of violence, how it manifests itself and how to identify it; the lack of knowledge of self-protection measures in the face of this phenomenon; the lack of knowledge of prevention guidelines in the use of technology and the lack of knowledge of legislation in general and the rights that reach victims in particular.
In this regard, it called for the design and implementation of tools and protocols to identify this violence, anticipate its occurrence and provide adequate psychological, social and legal care for the victims. He also reviewed the rights and prison implications of various forms of sexual violence, such as violation of privacy, humiliation, or attacks on freedom of expression. On this point, he highlighted the progress implied by the recent approval of the European directive that establishes a homogeneous framework for the protection of victims of digital violence, obliging member states to punish this type of violence. He concluded by insisting on the unity of action of society as the main way to eradicate any gender violence in general, and digital violence in particular.
Then there was a dialogue between José Julio Fernández Rodríguez, professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Santiago, and Lorena Casal Otero, pedagogue and professor of Pedagogy at the University of Santiago, In this joint intervention they addressed how current technology is perpetuating discrimination and male stereotypes. And, in particular, how disinformation is used for this purpose.
Like the first speaker, both denounced the lack of studies on gender violence exercised through technological means, which means that many awareness-raising and prevention actions are not adapted to reality due to the lack of information about it. For the speakers, this lack of studies complicates the detection and fight against digital gender violence and against speeches that promote discrimination through technology.
They denounced the impact of these speeches on youth through social networks, which act as “sounding boards” for hate and macho speeches, contributing to the normalization of violence against women and stereotypes. They concluded their intervention by calling for the inclusion of gender training as a specific subject in the different educational stages, also in the university training of teachers, as well as training interventions in companies and institutions as a way to combat this type of discourse.
The day was organized by the Unit against violence against women of the Government Delegation in Galicia, it took place in the Faculty of Law of the UDC and involved the participation of about 80 people among representatives of municipalities, women's information centers, municipal social services, and students of the faculty.