WUNRN
THE ROLE OF EMERGING COMMUNICATION
TECHNOLOGIES IN EXPERIENCES OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE: A NEW LEGAL FRONTIER?
Authors Nicole Bluett-Boyd, Bianca Fileborn,
Dr Antonia Quadara and Sharnee Moore are all at the Australian
Institute of Family Studies.
Direct Link to Full 100-Page 2013
Report:
This research study investigates how
communication technologies facilitate sexual violence against young people and
what challenges this presents for the Victorian criminal justice system. Based
on interviews with young people and professionals working with young people, it
examines the effects of technology on the lives of young people, the interface
between emerging communication technologies and experiences of sexual violence,
and the factors that enable or hinder appropriate legal responses.
Communication technologies such as online social networking sites and mobile
phones are considered, and their use in identifying and grooming potential
victims, blackmail and intimation, sexting, harassment, and pornography.
The key messages identified by the study
included:
- Young people's engagement with
emerging communication technologies (such as social networking and mobile
phone technology) is an essential method of socialisation. Given the
constant accessibility offered by these technologies, and the blurring
between online and offline social spheres, emerging communication
technologies afford diverse opportunities for the perpetration of sexual
violence.
- The study found that emerging
communication technologies help facilitate sexually violent acts, before,
during and after an offence. Specifically, technologies help to increase
the accessibility of potential victims:
- Before a
sexually violent act. Social networking in particular can provide a false
sense of connection between offender and victim. For example, the act of
'friending' enhances the feeling of 'trust'.
- During the act
of sexual violence, technologies can be used to record non-consensual
sexual activity. Threats to distribute this material can be used to
further coerce and victimise.
- After an act
of either consensual or non-consensual sexual activity, offenders can
distribute images to cause further harm to victims. Technologies are also
used post-assault to contact, threaten or abuse victims.
- A lack of clarity on how a range
of online behaviours should be conceptualised has hampered the development
of appropriate and effective responses to the issue. While the law has a
role to play in addressing such issues, appropriate conduct for using
technologies is better addressed through a primary prevention approach to
the promotion of personal ethics and respect.