Online safety 101: What every woman and girl should know

The digital world promised connection and empowerment – but for millions of women, it has become a hunting ground. 

Schoolgirls are grappling with fake nude images of themselves circulating on social media. Female business leaders are increasingly targeted with deepfakes and coordinated harassment campaigns. And women in the public eye face torrents of abuse: one in four women journalists and one in three women parliamentarians worldwide report online threats of physical violence, including death threats. 

Different lives, different contexts, same pattern. This is digital abuse – one of the fastest-growing forms of gender-based violence, and it is spreading across borders and platforms, threatening women and girls everywhere – online and offline. 

Experts say the problem is vast, with anywhere between 16 and 58 per cent of women worldwide reporting online violence or harassment, and now new technologies like artificial intelligence are making things worse. Image-based abuse is exploding, with an estimated 90 to 95 per cent of online deepfakes depicting women in sexualised ways. 

The abuse doesn’t just stay online. Online abuse can shatter mental health, wreck relationships, and derail careers in seconds. It can also spill into real life, escalating into stalking or physical violence, even death. Digital violence silences women and girls who should be free to speak. 

UN Women warns that this new front line of violence against women is intensifying and spreading fast. Recognising it and stopping it is urgent. While perpetrators of abuse and tech platforms that allow, advertise, and profit from digital abuse must be held accountable, women and girls also need information and tools to spot the early signs of abuse, take action, and reclaim their digital space. 

Read more about digital abuse and what to do about it