The project will generate a ‘photograph’ that will improve the social and institutional response to this growing problem.
The consultation, confidential and for statistical purposes, will be carried out through a questionnaire on a digital platform.
The research will reveal the main typologies of sexist cyberviolences that occur on the island and the impact on the lives of the women affected.
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, November 23, 2021. The Cabildo today called on the women of Gran Canaria to participate in the survey activated to develop the map of sexist cyber violences on the island. To do this, they will only have to respond to a confidential questionnaire at the link www.opcionate.com/cuestionario-mujeres-internet and give private testimony for statistical purposes of their experience and their perception of this reality. This is the first specific study of this type on sexist cyberviolences that takes place in the Canary Islands.
The initiative is part of the project ‘Sexist cyber violence: an analysis of the current reality in Gran Canaria’, which has the support of the Council for Equality Council to obtain a more precise knowledge of the impact of this scourge on the island. The objective is also to identify from this general picture the needs and proposal of new tools to stop the sexist cyberviolences in Gran Canaria, explained in the presentation the counsellor of the Gender Equality Area of Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Sara Ramírez.
The fundamental objective is to identify the main sexist cyber violences that women in Gran Canaria face, to know the impacts they have on their lives and the existing protection and reporting mechanisms, added the gender equality specialist Ana Lidia Fernández-Layos, coordinator of the organization Opciónate, and director of the research.
The participants will contribute to making the online space a place of equality and respect where women can feel free and find support, in addition to promoting greater knowledge about the experience of women that live in Gran Canaria in the digital world. Data privacy is absolutely guaranteed and women who indicate it will receive the results of the study directly through their email.
The consultation will investigate aspects such as the perception of the virtual space and the internet as an environment of gender violence, or of women vulnerability, as well as the knowledge women in Gran Canaria have regarding possible responses and ways of acting when gender violence behaviors are observed or lived online. The research will also look at womens´opinions regarding the impact that gender cyber violences have on different practical and emotional aspects of women lives and the proposals for prevention and action.
The questionnaire is a core part of this research that will also include the contributions of organizations and key people in the strategy against cyber violences in Gran Canaria thorugh in-depth interviews with women who have experienced a case of cyber violence for further analysis and a focus group with professionals on this issue to encourage the exchange of information, assessments and proposals among the participants.
The final result will be an operational document that will collect data, experiences and recommendations for improving the institutional response to sexist cyber violences in Gran Canaria. It will also be an instrument for raising awareness and sensitization about this multifaceted threat that takes shape in the most diverse forms: cyberbullying, non-consensual pornography or ‘sextortion’ and the use of technology to monitor and control the behavior of the couple.
The philosophy and structure of the research are in line with what is established by the Istanbul Convention of the Council of Europe, which calls for cyber violences to be made visible as a form of violence against women and to establish actions listening to the voices of those who have experienced it in first person.
The generalization of the Internet and New Information Technologies, the use of mobile devices, social networks, instant messaging services and geolocation, have facilitated new dynamics of control, intimidation, blackmail, and online harassment whose wide scope, rapid dissemination and difficult removal only increases the severity and impact they leave on the women affected.
This study is currently in its second phase. You can actively participate by answering to the cuestionairy aquí.
