Technology-Facilitated Abuse

Behind the Screens: What is Digital Abuse?

While abusers often use technology to maintain control over victims, many people don’t know what constitutes digital abuse and are not able to recognize the signs. This article from the National Domestic Violence Hotline defines digital abuse and offers guidance on how to recognize it.

A Glimpse from the Field: How Abusers are Misusing Technology

Abusers misuse technology in many ways to stalk, harass, and impersonate victims. NNEDV's Safety Net Project surveyed victim service providers on technology-assisted abuse in order to determine how abusers are misusing technology to abuse their victims and what can be done to help.

The Digital Abuse Study: Experiences of Teens and Young Adults

This study provides an in-depth look at the prevalence of digital abuse among young people. It was designed to quantify how young people are affected by and respond to issues like sexting, digital harassment, and digital dating abuse, and to analyze changing trends.

Teens, Technology and Romantic Relationships

Understanding the role social and digital media play in teens' romantic relationships is critical, given how deeply enmeshed these technology tools are in lives of American youth and how rapidly these platforms and devices change. This report examines the digital romantic practices of teens ages 13 to 17, from flirting to break-ups to digital abuse.

The Internet & Intimate Partner Violence: Technology Changes, Abuse Doesn’t

Online harassment itself is often a form of domestic or sexual violence, and the abuse is often a combination of online intimidation with offline abuse. This article explores ways in which abusers often use the internet and discusses implications for prosecutors.

Harassment

"Online abuse includes a diversity of tactics and malicious behaviors ranging from sharing embarrassing or cruel content about a person to impersonation, doxing, stalking and electronic surveillance to the nonconsensual use of photography and violent threats" (Women's Media Center). Online harassment is intersectional, often incorporating sexism, racism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression. Abusers may use a vast array of online tactics to harass their victims.

Sexting/Revenge Porn

While "sexting" (sharing sexually suggestive or explicit messages/images) can happen between consensual partners as a normal expression of sexuality, it can also be used as a tactic of abuse when one partner feels pressured or coerced into sexting, or when an abuser distributes/threatens to distribute sexually explicit images as nonconsensual pornography (often referred to as "revenge porn"). When sexting involves minors, there can be additional legal implications.

Stalking/Surveillance

Like other forms of gender-based violence, intimate partner stalking is not new, but advances in technology have given stalkers dangerous new tools.

Human Trafficking

"The rise of mobile has major implications both for the spread of human trafficking and for anti-trafficking efforts, and should be carefully considered by law enforcement, policymakers, and activists as they develop strategies to combat human trafficking" (Latoreno 2012). As use of the Internet and other forms of technology has spread and human trafficking increasingly takes place online, we must examine the ways that technological advancements can also be used to strengthen anti-trafficking efforts.

Child Sexual Abuse/Exploitation

The Internet and other technology can be valuable learning tools for children and parents, but also present serious concerns regarding children's safety. See the "Promoting Safe and Healthy Online Communities" chapter of this collection for tools and information on how to teach children about internet safety.

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Technology-Facilitated Abuse