Fighting digital domestic abuse

A new booklet has been launched in Cork designed to make women’s digital world safer as domestic abuse via technology continues to rise.

The booklet, entitled Supporting Women: Responding to Technology Facilitated Domestic Abuse, was developed by Safe Ireland in association with the National Cyber Security Awareness Taskforce. Technology facilitated domestic abuse, sometimes referred to as technological abuse or technology assisted abuse, can come in many forms according to Head of Enterprise Solutions at UCC, Rosie Coffey.

Speaking to the Cork Independent, Ms Coffey said more and more perpetrators are using technology to harass, stalk, control, and intimidate their victims.

She said there are also many devices with built in technology that can be used to spy on and control a victim, with some extreme cases involving remotely accessible doorbells or even children’s teddy bears with built-in cameras.

She said: “It is a very real emerging term that we have seen more and more of in recent years. The booklet is very comprehensive and designed to help, educate and empower women to recognise signs of abuse.”

Ms Coffey also told the newspaper that some types of abuse may not be widely recognised so it will help to drive awareness around that.

“It also shows people how to set up their device in a safe way. A lot of the guidance before might have been to go offline or go off social media but we don’t advocate for that.

“The reality is that people need these things, they need their device for their support network.”

She also said if a person constantly finds themselves locked out of accounts or apps or being repeatedly asked for a password where they weren’t before, these can be signs that somebody may have access to the content of a victim’s phone.

Another form of technology facilitated abuse referred to by Ms Coffey is what’s known as ‘revenge porn’, where a perpetrator publicly posts intimate pictures or videos of a victim without their consent.

She said: “It is an illegal act and a form of coercive control, although we would rather not use the word ‘revenge’ as it might suggest the victim has done something wrong.”

The booklet was launched yesterday as part of the Cyber Ireland National Conference in Cork city and, although specifically designed as a tool for frontline domestic-abuse responders, will be freely available from safeireland.ie and cyberawarenessireland.com.