Cyberviolence is an increasing problem worldwide - even more so since the Covid-19 pandemic - and is often gender-based and targeting women and girls. Cyberviolence hampers the full realisation of gender equality and violates women’s rights.
Cyberviolence comprises a broad range of conduct that most directly affects the dignity and rights of individuals. States have a positive obligation to protect individuals from the potential harms of the internet while ensuring human rights are protected (K.U. v. Finland). It is therefore essential that states manage to strike a fine balance between sufficiently interfering in order to protect persons from cyberviolence and harassment on one hand, and respecting the freedom of expression and right to privacy on the other hand.
While prevention is essential and should be given priority, criminal justice is part of the response.
Better training and awareness raising of criminal justice authorities regarding cyberviolence should be provided (including its investigation, prosecution and sanctioning, where it constitutes a criminal offence).
Use should be made of the tools available under the Budapest, Lanzarote and Istanbul Conventions of the Council of Europe, as well as the Protocol on Xenophobia and Racism to the Budapest Convention, but also Convention on Action against Human Trafficking, whether or not States are Parties to those instruments.
These Council of Europe international standards offer valuable guidance and tools to states in tackling cyberviolence.
Existing domestic legislation may in some circumstances be adequate to capture cyberviolence, or specific cyber offences may need to be introduced. Drafters should consider making offences technologically neutral so as to ensure they can be applied to emerging technologies and forms of cyberviolence. The success of international co-operation for emerging crime types can be influenced by the level of adequate criminalisation of cyberviolence domestically.
Service providers play crucial role in detection, prevention, investigation and prosecution of cyberviolence.
They also play a key role in combatting forms of cyberviolence that involve illegal content, by providing mechanisms for reporting and removing illegal content from platforms.
The Council of Europe Committee of Minister’s recommendation on the roles and responsibilities of internet intermediaries calls on all states to provide a human rights and rule of law-based framework that lays out the main obligations of the states with respect to the protection and promotion of human rights in the digital environment, and the respective responsibilities of intermediaries.
What is cyberviolence?
Cyberviolence being a relatively new phenomenon that encompasses a wide variety of crimes, the term is still difficult to define precisely.
The T-CY Working Group on cyberbullying and other forms of violence, in its Mapping Study on Cyberviolence, settled on defining cyberviolence as:
"The use of computer systems to cause, facilitate, or threaten violence against individuals, that results in (or is likely to result in) physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering and may include the exploitation of the individual's circumstance, characteristics or vulnerabilities."
Why is addressing it important?
Cyberviolence is often misunderstood and not taken as seriously as it should be. Yet, it is important to remember that cyberviolence may start online, but it often ends offline with devastating consequences for the victims and their families.
Threats of violence, stalking, incitement to suicide, sollictation of children for sexual purposes... may all result in the victim self-harming or being physically attacked by the initial perpetrator. It is important to act in order to prevent cyberviolence from happening, and to protect and bring justice to the victims.
However, most countries are struggling to recognize the different facets of the problem and to address them in domestic law. Some types of cyberviolence are addressed fully or in part in international agreements, but many remain unaddressed.
The Council of Europe is working across sectors (through, for instance, the mechanisms related to the Budapest Convention, the Istanbul Convention and the Lanzarote Convention) to ensure human rights are upheld in cyberspace as well, for all.
Initiatives, Policies, Strategies
Andorra: National Plan on Prevention of Bullying and Harassment at School
Andorra has issued a National Plan of prevention of Bullying and Harassment at School 2016-2019, which identifies four typologies of harassment, namely physical, verbal, social exclusion and cyber harassment, and detailed instruments for prevention.
ASEAN: 2019 Declaration and Plan of Action to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA)
In 2019, The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with the support of UNICEF and ECPAT International, adopted two key documents that reflect ASEAN governments’ commitment to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse: the Declaration on the Protection of Children from all forms.
Australia: call for 100,000 happy pictures of children to facilitate online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) investigations
In July 2022, AiLecs lab, a project developed by Monash University and the Australian federal police, launched a call named "My Pictures Matter", asking internet users above 18 to share happy pictures of their childhood. By memorizing these images, artificial intelligence (AI) investigative tools.