Gender-based cyberviolence: an analysis of the current reality in Gran Canaria

Client: Department of Equality of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria

Dates: September to March 2022

Scope: Institutions, Social Projects

Services: Research, Evaluation, Materials

Description:

Opciónate will carry out a participatory study to obtain concrete data on the main resources, institutions, lines of prevention and action, needs, cases and consequences of gender based cyber-violence in Gran Canaria. This project has been funded by the Department of Equality of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria in its Call for the promotion of equality on grounds of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity 2021.

With the advent 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 reach, rapid dissemination and difficult elimination only increase the severity and the mark they leave on the victims.

The research to be carried out by Opciónate will help to make gender based cyber-violence visible as another form of violence against women, to understand the current situation in Gran Canaria and to identify testimonies, assessments, demands and proposals through the voices of women who have experienced it. Through the study it will be possible to identify the main forms of cyber-violence that women suffer and the impact they have on their lives, as well as the mechanisms they use to obtain information, protection and denounce.

The project will respond to the points of Axis 1 of the Strategic Framework of the Department of Equality which are dedicated to Prevention and Protection against gender based violence: the empowerment of women survivors, the treatment of violence against women as a social problem, improving information on the reporting process and available resources, generating knowledge about the reality of women in situations of gender based violence in Gran Canaria and generating knowledge, awareness and visibility of sexual violence (sexual cyber-violence in this case).

The study will be carried out in a participatory and experiential way through a focus group, questionnaires, and interviews with a total of at least 100 women and key professionals working in the prevention and care of gender-based cyber-violence on the island.

A communication and media plan will be developed and implemented to raise social awareness and disseminate the key contents obtained from the study.

This study is currently in its second phase. You can actively participate by answering to the cuestionairy here

Key words: Equality, Gender violence, Gender indicators, Gender approach, Gender equality research.