Receiving unsolicited sexual content, insults online due to physical appearance, pressure to take sexual photos or videos… all of this is part of the so-called digital sexual violence (also known by the acronym VSD), a type of violence that has suffered by up to 60% of adolescents and young people between 16 and 29 years old, according to the study 'Exposed Generation: Young people facing digital sexual violence' carried out by the Reina Sofía Center of Fad Juventud and the team of Divisar Research from the Complutense University of Madrid. The most common forms of VSD include receiving non-consensual sexual content (22.1%) and harassment based on physical appearance (21.3%), followed by harassment by an adult while a minor ( 16.6%) and pressure to take sexual photos or videos (13.9%). In addition, the participants also mention other situations such as showing photos of themselves as a sexual object, receiving insults for their sexual life, threats to spread images or videos of them, and spreading their own intimate or sexual content without consent. Even 6.4% highlight having been victims of the creation of sexual images of themselves with artificial intelligence.
The impact on the victim
The truth is that men and women suffer these attacks in similar proportions, although the report shows that the social impact tends to be more serious for them. Thus, they more frequently experience social isolation or reduction in activities outside the home (29.4%), abandonment or limited use of technologies (20.7%), and the appearance of self-harm or suicidal thoughts (19.4%). Digital sexual violence also affects the emotional well-being of the victims: almost 4 out of 10 women feel shame after suffering the assault; 33% suffer from anxiety, 29.9% feel fear, and 26.9% experience a deterioration in their self-esteem. In most cases, those affected share what happened with those around them, but 14.6% do not dare to tell their experience, mainly due to shame (56.7%), but also because of the fear of being judged or being judged. responsible for the attack. Likewise, the fear of revictimization or the fact of perceiving institutional barriers means that only 11.6% of women decide to report to the police or seek legal support.
Proposals to create a safe environment
The study also pays attention to the ways to protect themselves that victims seek: 41.5% of young women decide to block their attackers on digital platforms; and 29.2% choose to report offensive content on the platform. However, these measures are generally not enough and 65.6% of those surveyed propose improving training in online security and privacy as a priority. They also ask that companies and technology platforms act more quickly, advocating to identify aggressors and removing offensive content more efficiently. Finally, 66.4% believe that greater awareness is necessary regarding the content that is uploaded to networks, and 64.5% consider that social support for victims should improve, highlighting the need to strengthen support networks to those who suffer digital sexual violence.