NWCI Submission on Online Harassment, Harmful Communications & Related Offences
Published: Thursday, October 10, 2019
NWCI welcomed the opportunity to respond to the Oireachtas Committee on Justice and equality consultation concerning online harassment, harmful communications and related offences. Online violence against women is an overt expression of the gender discrimination and inequality that exists offline.
Violence against women is the most significant crime impacting on women internationally and in Ireland. In 2014, the EU Fundamental Rights Agency reported that 25% Irish women had experienced a form of physical and/or sexual violence since the age of fifteen, and 8% experience physical and/or sexual violence each year. 79% of Irish women who have experienced sexual or physical violence have never reported it to an official body and less than 3% of women students said they had ever reported their unwanted sexual experiences to An Garda Síochána. 12% of Irish respondents in the FRA study had experienced stalking (including cyber stalking). Cyberviolence, in all its forms (cyberstalking, online harassment, image-based abuse ect,) is known to have negative psychological, social, and reproductive health outcomes for those who experience such abuse.
The link between online and offline abuse and violence disproportionately affects women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities. It is beyond essential that the gendered nature of cyberviolence is recognised in the criminal law. It is also essential that training and awareness is integrated into any proposed law reform that recognises and highlights the correlation between online and offline abuse and the gendered nature of these crimes that disproportionality effect women, girls and sexual and gender minorities.
In considering the questions posed by the Oireachtas Committee, and in drafting our submission, NWCI considered the proposed Bill on Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences and the related Bill drafted by the Law Reform Commission in 2016, as well as their 2016 Report on Harmful Communications and Digital Safety. NWCI drew the Committee’s attention to a number of key areas of concern: A. Potential shortcomings in drafting gender-neutral legislation; B. The importance of language and correct terminology; C. Ensuring that any new legisation is robust enough to capture all abusive and exploitive acts, including voyeuristic behaviour such as ‘upskirting’ and ‘downblousing’; D. The need to create a discrete and separate offence for stalking; and E. The issue of self-regulation of online harassment by social media companies.