A new Australian survey by tech company Norton by Symantec suggests that online harassment of young women is becoming an “established norm.” Not cool.
The release of the survey, which found that 76 percent of Australian women under 30 had experienced some form of online harassment, coincided with International Women’s Day. The survey lists “cyberbullying,” “trolling,” “abuse & insults,” “malicious gossip/rumors” and “threat of physical violence” as subsets of the harassment.
Younger women are especially susceptible, since the number of women reporting harassment drops to 46 percent when women of all ages are included. That would make sense, as young women are spending way more time interacting with people on the internet.
“As a community, we need to speak up against all forms of violence, including acts of harassment in the online world,” Norton Brand Ambassador and Journalist Tara Moss is quoted as saying in the survey results.
Beyondblue, an Australian organization for people with depression and anxiety, has long been partnered with Norton to combat issues like these and support people who suffer from online harassment. CEO Georgie Harman believes that organizations similar to hers need to collaborate with IT companies in order to make the internet a more comfortable place for everyone.
Only 10 percent of the women said that they had reported harassers to police, despite 14 percent receiving threats of physical violence and 20 percent reporting feeling violated or abused because of their experiences.
Among the LGBT women surveyed, 1 out of 4 reported being targeted for their sexual orientation, and 70 percent of all women surveyed viewed online harassment as a serious issue.
About 20 percent of cases were related to a woman’s appearance, and about 10 percent of women under 30 reported revenge porn or sexual extortion to be their most upsetting experience on the internet.
Norton’s tips for avoiding and dealing with online harassment include maintaining online privacy, security settings and passwords; keeping records of harassment; and reporting instances to authorities and website operators. If you get harassed online, don’t say silent about it—It’s 100 percent NOT okay for people to make violent threats against you, even if it seems less bad because it’s on the internet.