Preventing and Combating All Forms of Cyber Violence Against Girls (CSW70 Side Event)

Hello. Good morning, everybody. Can we have everybody seated down? It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for being here.

My name is Karen Davila. I'm a broadcast journalist and I serve as the UN Women a goodwill ambassador from the Philippines. And it's an honor to be moderating this high level event convened by the European Union and Cyprus and as the current presidency of the Council of the European Union. Microphone, please. Can you make it louder so they can hear it?

They can hear me all the way from the back. How is that? Not yet better. Slightly louder, please. All right, so this is perfect.

Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is a high level event convened by the European Union and Cyprus as the current presidency of the Council of the European Union on preventing and combating all forms of cyber violence against girls. Yesterday, I moderated a forum that was put together by the UK mission and it was interesting because it focused specifically on women, on combating the spread of non consensual intimate images online in platforms like Meta, for example, Facebook, and the responsibilities of companies that essentially do a lot of artificial intelligence. How does that play into protecting women all over the world?

And we talked about the laws that were passed in the US and the UK of the Take Down Down Act. Within 48 hours today, we will be focusing specifically on cyber violence against girls. Now, please note that simultaneous interpretation is provided for in English and Spanish. The event is streamlined or live streamed rather on UN Web tv. And I would like to welcome people tuning in from around the world.

Thank you for being here with us. Thank you. Thank you.

Now, what is particularly alarming is that cyber violence does not begin in adulthood. And we know that the Philippines, for example, is a case study of cyber violence, child trafficking, sex trafficking. Coming from relatives and parents themselves, and with many developing nations, we see this as the problem that's hardest to combat today when it comes to young women and girls.

Now, global research already indicates that more than half of girls and young women have experienced online violence. Many are reporting their first encounter between the ages of 14 and 16. But possibly, if you ask many developing nations, the research would be much younger, maybe even nine years old. the Commission on the Status of Women, we are reminded that gender equality must be realized in all spaces. Violence does not happen only offline or what's often described as the real world.

Online violence is the real world. Preventing and responding to cyber violence is integral to advancing women's and girls rights. And if you ask me, I've often told the team at UN Women, I think it is the biggest problem that we are facing today. Our children are digital natives. They do not know of any other world.

I grew up in an analog era, even in broadcast where I had no phones. My children do not know of any other world today so I am pleased to start off. I invite the Commissioner for Gender equality of Cyprus, Ms. Josie Christudoulou to deliver the opening remarks.

Thank you Dear Karen Commissioner Labip, Vice Minister Gomez, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women Dear Panelists Olympia, Gary Viraj and Maruli Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, dear friends, I warmly welcome you to this side event co organized by Cyprus and the eu, co sponsored by UN Women, Mexico and Philippines. Thank you for your support. Preventing and combating cyber violence against girls is a priority issue of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the eu. Fully aligned with our European principles and commitments at UN level, including as a member of the UN Human Rights Council. We are honored to lead the EU engagement on this critical issue.

At a time of rapidly evolving global challenges, our collective leadership is more vital than ever. Digital transformation has changed how young people learn, communicate and engage. While online platforms offer opportunities for many girls, the digital world entails fear and harm. Gender based cyber violence, including harassment, stalking, sexual coercion and non consensual sharing of intimate material is widespread and unfortunately normalized. Its impact is amplified by speed, reach and permanence of digital platforms.

Anonymity shields perpetrators while victims suffer lasting effects on their mental health, confidence and participation and this abuses reflect and reinforce gender inequalities, undermining girls trust in digital spaces, limiting their visibility and democratic engagement. To respond effectively, the Cyprus Presidency commissioned a study from the European Institute for Gender Equality on cyber violence against girls which will inform the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council conclusions to be adopted in June. The findings are alarming. Online abuse is a daily experience for many girls. Those aged 13 to 15 often face exclusion, humiliation and body shaming, While older girls 16 to 18 encounter sexualized violations like grooming, sextortion and the non consensual sharing of intimate images including AI generated content.

Girls facing intersecting discrimination on the basis of disability, ethnicity or socioeconomic disadvantage are at greater risk. Many report that prevention efforts don't match the platforms they use, leading to underreporting. This calls for youth gender centered evidence based policies. In this context, President Christo Dulides co signed a letter with several European leaders calling for an EU wide minimum age for social media access to better protect children from cyberbullying and harmful content. Under our EU presidency, Cyprus will also host a conference in Nicosia this May, bringing together policymakers, civil society, the tech industry, youth and educators to shape a coordinated, multi stakeholder response, including the engagement of men and boys.

At the national level, Cyprus has established a robust legal framework based on the Istanbul Convention and aligned with the evolving EU Acquis on technology, facilitated the violence and this framework will be further reinforced by the new EU directive on Violence against Women and Domestic Violence and of course, the new Gender Equality Strategy. EU GENDER EQUALITY STRATEGY A wide range of forms of cyber violence are criminalized, some of which are recognized as gender based violence, while others are addressed within broader criminal and regulatory frameworks. These include the non consensual dissemination and recording of intimate material, often known as revenge pornography and AI generated deep fakes, cyber stalking and harassment, online threats of rape and violence. Doxing technology facilitated coercive control and psychological violence, unlawful access to digital accounts, sextortion, online defamation and online sexism. However, legislation alone is only the start of prevention.

In Cyprus, we are mainstreaming gender across all public policies, including gender budgeting, through our national Gender Equality Strategy. We are investing in training, specialized training for professionals and ensuring accessible support services. At the same time, deconstructing gender stereotypes from an early age is a key pillar of our work. While we are stepping up prevention strategies, recognizing that they must be developed together with young people, distinguished colleagues, friends, girls must not have to choose between participation and safety. We have the legal tools and the evidence, and now we must translate commitments into tangible protection and prevention.

And our response must be coordinated and global. Protecting girls online is not optional. It is a universal human rights obligation and a shared responsibility. Thank you. And I look forward to our exchanges today.

Thank you very much, Commissioner Chris Todalou, for that expansive coverage. In your opening statement, it is now my honor to invite the European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, Ms. Haja Labib, to deliver her opening remarks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Dear Commissioner, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, and dear friends. First of all, I would like to say how much I am happy to be here. It's a real pleasure to see a full room with even eight or nine men. And I want to thank them.

And I have a special request for them. Please, next year, come with your friends. We need men to be fully on board in this debate.

I see some. Some European meps in the room. They know that last year I became a grandmother for the first time. I'm so proud and I'm so in love with her, you cannot imagine. And although I have a very busy agenda, I try my best to have a good time with her.

And of course, even when she's with me, sometimes I have to check my messages, my email in my phone, and the moment she sees the bright screen, the colorful apps, of course she tried to grab it and my instinct is to pull it away as if she were reaching for a sharp knife. And when you think about it, that instinct should feel strange. This device is one of the most powerful tools for creativity and connections ever created. So yet we know it can be, you know, it can do real harm. So that is today's reality.

Cyber violence against girls is getting worse. So the question for all of us is very simple. How do we make the digital world a place of opportunity for girls and not a place of danger? And that is why this conversation matters. Dear friends, Last week I presented our gender equality strategy for the next five years and the strategy puts a clear spotlight on gender based cyber violence.

Let me highlight some key priorities. First, strong laws addressing cyber violence is now a central part of our response to violence against women. It is firmly addressed in the EU Directive on Combating Violence against Women. Now we must put it into action. The Directive requires Member States to take concrete action against gender based violence.

It makes certain forms of online abuse a crime because violence is violence, whether it happens on the street or on a screen. Our gender equality strategy also commits to the full enforcement of the Digital Services Act. This act recognizes gender based violence as a systemic risk. Online platforms must assess these risks and take real action to reduce them. And we will launch a regulatory structured dialogue with online platforms on addressing gender based cyber violence.

We will also build the capacity of trusted flaggers to make sure more illegal gender based violence content is flagged and removed. In Europe, tech companies are not above the law. My second point concerns technology. The digital world moves at the speed of light. We need to move just as quickly.

Artificial intelligence is a clear example. AI offers extraordinary opportunities, but it can also generate new forms of abuse such as deepfakes. And that is why the EU's AI act sets clear boundaries to eliminate gender bias in algorithms and require platforms to act when illegal content appears. We are also tackling cyberbullying. One in six adolescents has experienced cyberbullying and one in eight admits to having taken part in it.

And girls, of course, face more harassment and more sexualized abuse online. And that is why the Commission launched a new action plan against cyberbullying and it calls on Member States to develop their own strategies. We are also preparing an action plan on the protection of children against crime. Children face many threats today online and offline, from grooming and trafficking to recruitment by organized crime. Our response must protect children both as victims and as those who may be drawn into crime.

And my third point focuses on cooperation. The Internet does not stop at borders, so we must work together to keep everyone safe. Through the Global Action on Cybercrime Enhanced the Glassy E program, we are supporting specialized training for justice professionals in Latin America with a strong focus on gender in CyberCrime. Through the EU's Gender Action Plan 3, we are also supporting women's Leadership in Digital technologies. This promotes gender sensitive digital policies and helps women and girls thrive in the digital world.

And through the Team Europe initiative on women's leadership in the public ICT sector, we are working to make digital spaces safer for women and girls. Dear friends, real change needs everyone on board. Governments, schools, families, tech companies and yes, civil society. Because this is about more than changing policy. It's about changing mindsets.

Girls and boys, women and men, in all their diversity. When we think of our children or grandchildren, we all want the same thing. When their screen light up, they should enter a world not of darkness, but of curiosity, confidence and above all, safety. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Commissioner Labib. Platforms are not above the law. I think this is a good forum to actually understand how platforms are also held accountable for the doors that they open to women and girls. And now I'd like to call for our next high level intervention. We'll be heading to another continent.

Underscoring the internationally shared concerns on the global relevance of efforts to address cyber violence. I'd like to invite the Vice Minister for Mexico, for women of Mexico, Ms. Ingrid Gomez, to deliver her intervention. She will be speaking in Spanish.

Muchas gracias. Thank you very much. Good morning to all of you. Thank you to my colleagues on this panel.

Thank you to all of the excellencies that are participating today in this forum, on this panel discussing cyber violence. Why are we discussing cyber violence? Why are women in Mexico discussing cyber violence? Well, two years ago, in 2024, 83.7% of all Mexicans, both male and female, used Internet on devices, particularly cell phones. About 90 million people and 47.6% of users are women.

42, rather 46.7 million users are women and 46 million are men. In 2024, approximately 18.9 million people were victims of harassment online. 10.6 million women suffered cyber violence, as well as millions of men. And this is why we must discussed cyber violence in Mexico. Of the 10.6 million women that filed reports of cyber violence.

And this is of course related to the statistics that were shared before. 57.7% were younger than 29 years of age. They were young women. 3.3 million women between 20 and 29 years of age and 2.8 million girls and adolescents between 12 and 18 years of age.

Of every 10 girls between 20 and 29 years of age suffering cyber violence, there were also 8 men who suffered cyber violence. And we see that cyber violence takes different forms between men and women. Women tend to suffer sexual proposals and insinuations online. They receive sexual content, their identity is usurped. We see that there is monitoring online.

This is very common and it has to do with discrimination. We see that women are harassed because of their physical appearance or social class information, private information is published online. Images and videos of sexual content are also shared without their consent. This is what women who suffer cyber violence tend to experience. Men have different experiences when it comes to cyber violence.

These tend to be offensive messages and calls, online provocations to cause the men to react in negative manners. And there are also threats, threats of publishing information, I.e. personal videos or calls. We see a very significant difference between what women and men experience when it comes to cyber violence. And I also would like to congratulate you all.

In this room, we have men who are allies. And I invite you to bring your colleagues and friends so that they can join us in this collective reflection. Digital violence harms us all.

We also have to consider the effects. 61% of women state that they feel angry. 65% of men also report anger. But 35% of women state that they feel fear. And only 6% of men say this.

32.3% of women, compared to 28% of men, say that they feel insecure. And now another important statistic. In four years, victims of cyber violence, that number increased from 61 million people to 80.1 million. And we see that the use of Internet has increased significantly. We have more devices available now in 2019.

I then met a very young colleague, a young girl from Puebla. She's sitting here towards my left. Olympia Coral.

I appreciate her with that grit, that courage that is so characteristic of her. She told us that we have to listen and observe the cyber violence. And since 2019, until 2021, Olympia and digital activists were able to work with allies in the legislative branch and executive branch. They took on the task to reform the law for women to have a life free of violence. It now includes cyber violence, as well as several criminal justice codes that allow the crime of Cyber violence to be included in the laws.

This is part of the effort that we have been carrying out. I appreciate and I recognize that the European Union has invited us here today into this room to discuss and reflect on everything that we still have to do, but the achievements that we have also had when it comes to including cyber violence in our laws. Last year in Fortaleza, Brazil, the Mechanism for Monitoring Belem do Para adopted a model law. It originates from this struggle that Olympia has been leading in Mexico. We have provided support as well as the role of cyber activists in order to include cyber violence in our laws.

And I have a spoiler alert for you today. Today our President, Dr. Claudia Scheinbaum, our Minister of Women, who sends her kind greetings to all of you. Citlali Hernandez Mora. She was not able to be here with you during the CSW because today we are presenting an agreement. This is an agreement with tech platforms, particularly social media.

This is essential because it adds on to all of the efforts that we've been carrying out. And of course, digital activists have been with us. Olympia has been very active.

We see all of the years of this work and the fruits that they are bearing. We signed an agreement today with Google Meta and TikTok. I am also of the analog era. I'm a few years old and these seem to be the platforms that the youth are using the most. Quite briefly, I would like to say that this agreement has actions for prevention and responding.

There are eight actions for prevention and nine for responding. We will have community guidelines for social media platforms to enforce this law. We will also have several campaigns. It is extremely important for social media platforms to carry out educational campaigns, campaigns to inform users and content creators. And we have these campaigns because we want to incentivize victims to report cyber violence.

We want them to know what tools are available on these platforms for these situations. We also have to include education, as digital activists say. We have to equip women with their rights as citizens. We have to equip content creators so that we can have an inclusive digital space. We need to create awareness on how to use technology with responsibility.

And this of course includes digital platforms. When it comes to responses, we will create a guide. This is something being done with Olympia digital activists and many colleagues to report content and use protection tools on digital platforms. We will strengthen tools and policies in order to create spaces for reporting. This is essential.

They must be able to report profiles. We are also creating a hotline in case of cyber violence to provide orientation and support. We will also develop new tools and Policies that are accessible, easy to understand and consult. This will allow us to deal with harassment and other cyber violence. We have started working groups to establish a path to cooperate with authorities, institutions, academia, digital experts, and civil society organizations.

As my colleagues have said, we cannot do this alone. This must be carried out with the technology platforms, with academia, with digital activists, with governmental institutions. In 2019, this young lady from Huachenango, Puebla, told me, what occurs virtually is real. We need to address what occurs online with a stranger, same strength and the same strategy that we use to address violence in the physical realm. So here we are, and we will continue to build on this strategy.

We need to create global networks. This is not just a problem in my country, and of course, our country calls us to discuss the issue of cyber violence, but this is a global, global problem. So I really appreciate this opportunity. And as always, I would like to thank Olympia. Our lovely Olympia.

Thank you for defending everyone in the digital space. And as our president says, if a girl, if an adolescent can navigate the physical space and the virtual space with security, anyone in the community can do it. Thank you very much, and I wish you all a lovely day.

Thank you very much, Vice Minister Gomez, also for sharing the proactive approach that your country is doing. And now it's our honor to actually hear from the woman herself, a survivor of sexual digital violence that changed the landscape. And now there's on more colloquial terms, what they call the Olympia Law. And that's because of her courage in sharing her story. Let us all welcome Olympia Melody.

I will be speaking in Spanish, so please use the earpiece so that we can all understand each other. I will start this conversation with a question. What will we tell the girls in the future? What will we tell the girls of the future? That we allow their bodies to be dehumanized and become sexual robots.

That to satisfy pedophiles and violate their right to privacy. This then allowed an industry of pornography to enrich itself with our bodies and allow rape. What will we tell the girls of the future? That we did not regulate the algorithm of the patriarchy? That we allowed nine out of every 10 girls to suffer cyber violence before they turn 15 years old?

What will we tell the girls of the future? That they see us here sitting while digital platforms and companies become richer by using their bodies, their lives, their biometric data, and the lack of regulations? What will we tell the girls of the future when they know that 80% of water in the world is contaminated? That the very few water left is being exploited by digital platforms? That have exploited, that taken on the territory of the global south to use artificial intelligence.

What will we tell the girls of the future, ladies and gentlemen? That we did nothing to fight this false discourse of empowerment by objectifying beauty. This sexual model that became trending on TikTok to sexualize children, benefiting cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, allowing girls to think that the trend of being pretty and not having wrinkles is more important than thinking, than acting, than being protagonists of their own stories. What will we say to the girls of the future? That it took more than 10 years to publish private information in cases of abuse such as Epstein?

We see that this is coming out over and over again. We see that social media classifies data however it wants and doesn't share their code for justice.

What will we tell the girls of the future? That world leaders have taken the stage concerned, but they advance their same imperialist and conservative policies that have no standards for cooperation. That do not allow for these cases of digital violence to be taken to trials. No, we will not say this in Mexico. We will not say this anymore in Mexico and Latin America.

We will not tell the girls that we have benefited economy over their rights. We will not tell them that they will grow experiencing codependency with screens with psycho emotional problems. Because it has been displayed. It has been proven that algorithmic addiction affects the brain. It increases dopamine, which is similar to heroin.

Heroin. Thanks to the design used by these apps, these digital platforms, we see how these search engines work. I am a survivor of cyber violence. If I would have reached received training in the digital sphere, maybe I would have never considered suicide after a sexual video was shared without my consent when I was 18 years old. If there were education beyond hardware and software, maybe Eva wouldn't have committed suicide when she was 16 years old in Argentina when another student shared online her social images and the school didn't respond.

This is for Emma and for her mother, Laura Sanchez, who continues to fight.

This is for all of the girls of Latin America and the global South. They continue to be victims of digital colonialism which hides the aggressors and provides this fiscal paradise. This goes for the immigrants in America, because in America we are all here. It is all of us, all of our countries, all of our languages and territories. And we are all online In Mexico.

We can say that there is a model law in digital violence that has been established, including the voices of the victims, such as the Olympia Law. It can be improved. But before the multilateral institutions even tried to address this topic, we were already doing this from the territories. We were calling it cyber violence. And we have our regulations in Mexico that recognize the need to be safe online.

And with the agreement that is being signed by the President of our republic, we will have a charter of rights, digital rights for women to be safe online. Today, the presidency, our president, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced this agreement. And I would like to thank our Minister of Women in Mexico, Citlali Hernandez, for allowing me not to be a politician, not to be a minister, not to be a member of a political party, but a survivor that is able to raise her voice thanks to hundreds and thousands of women that have been fighting.

The problem of access to justice for girls and women. When it comes to cyber violence is not a moral issue. It is an economic issue, a legal and social issue. Technology does not facilitate violence, they are able to perpetuate it. Only 3% of artificial intelligence developers are women in the world.

But we in civil society, as digital activists in Latin America, have been able to change that rhythm. We were able to close the gap and with Aura Chat we established the Olympia Law from AI artificial intelligence to address cyber violence. Many organizations in Mexico and Latin America are also changing the digital world for women and girls. We want the Olympia Law to be heard across the world to prevent and sanction cyber violence. I would like to greet my colleagues from Honduras, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala and Uruguay who are currently resisting in their countries in order to prevent and fight civilization.

Cyber violence against girls. We need to recognize that what is virtual is also real. We need to address this problem from the root the response of technological companies. We need to analyze the legal system, the ability to analyze this forensic data online. We must have programs that work with empathy, that put childhood above all else, that put girls and women at the center.

Because it is not true that men and women experience this violence in the same way. Percent of victims are women and girls. Lastly, we need comprehensive reparation. Today we aspire that content is not included online in sexual and intimate ways. We have ways to eliminate content such as NCMEC deprotejo.com take it down, stop NCII.

And many of these tools are used with discretion by the private tech companies. They are not being used considering human rights. So the request here is clear. We must eliminate sexual content that is published online without consent. And not just that, but there should be a moment in which it is no longer even possible to upload this content.

It is impossible for a Walt Disney song to have more rights on it Instagram than the body of a person.

It is impossible that Internet hides codes without any community perspective doesn't include indigenous language or inclusion for people with disabilities. More than 10 years ago, we were said that it was impossible to legislate cyber violence. And today we are here sitting before you, about to celebrate five years of the Olympia law. The United nations recognized this as a milestone for Latin America and held it as an example. They call us when we talk about the patriarchal algorithm in caps.

The algorithm is part of the patriarchy. Let's see where we are. We need to address the economy, the virtual economy. Without it, access for victims to justice will just be an illusion. Justice for victims in Latin America.

Justice for all victims. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much for the. We feel your passion and your courage.

Thank you. And our next speaker, I just like to guide all our panelists. We're here till 11:15. I know our speakers have. They have events after this.

So if we can keep it straight to the point, strong. Of course we have. Up next, I think is a person we need to hear from, because when I watched Adolescence on Netflix, that limited series, I have to say, as a parent, I was disturbed for months. And our male panelist here is the founder and CEO of Equimundo, the center for Masculinities and Social Justice. And we need to hear how boys are being educated and brought in to the gender equality advocacy.

Mr. Gary Barker.

First, I want to thank Olympia for your courage of sharing your story and carrying that to the public for the impact that it has. Thank you for that. Sorry about that. I said first I wanted to thank Olympia for her courage of sharing her story and working with so many activists to achieve those changes in Mexico and beyond. I want to share some reflections from what we know about young men's perpetration of cyber violence.

I offer these reflections knowing that probably one out of two of the women here in the room have experienced one of these forms violence. I realize in that context, it's not easy for to hear a man talking about the need to understand why men use violence so that we can prevent it. But I do think it is urgent that we say men's violence is not inevitable. This is not. And while I adored the TV show Adolescence as a piece of drama, it also encourages to look at sort of that men are inevitably violent.

So let's talk a little bit about what is happening to young men's lives online that helps us figure out what we can do to prevent violence. We've just been carrying out a study together with UN women looking at men's perpetration, particularly young Men's perpetration, because this is mostly young men perpetrating this violence. What are the factors we see first, the young men we talk to Latin America, sub Saharan Africa. We've also done research on this in the US young people are spending and as Olympia said, three to five hours per day online. 60% of young men tell us it is more interesting online than their offline lives.

Young women as well, most young people tell us now online and offline are not really distinguishable lives. They are, it is life. We hear from men and women. 60% say that what comes to them is their feedback feels out of control, that they feel they do not control. This is the power of algorithms.

The feeling of it is what comes to you, not necessarily what you seek. A quarter to 30% of men and women receive misogynist or anti feminist content. The feed is coming to them. This is without looking for it, it comes to you. There's a high agreement with that anti feminist and misogynist content about sexual.

60% of men we talk to believe in at least one of those statements that comes their way. And about 40% of women are also believing in some of these anti feminist statements. So the messages they're receiving, the content and the form of the platform are all driving an agreement with some of these views. Not surprisingly, 1 in 10 to 1 in 3 men had carried out putting images without consent of the person up. About a quarter to a third had carried out some form of threat against a woman politician or a women's rights activist or another woman.

This has become something of a global sport of young men. While we look at those high numbers, I also want to say let's look at the factors of which men are more likely to use it. Because it is important to say not all young men who spend time online are using this violence. Which ones are? The more porn you access, more likely you are to carry out cyber violence, the more likely you believe in these attitudes.

If you believe in these misogynist attitudes that are coming your way, the more likely you are. Young men who report social isolation, they spend less time with others, they are less likely to be with others who say that might not be okay. Young men who perceive they're economically precarious, they feel their future looks bleak. These are not excuses. I want to make that very clear.

This is not giving young men who have those characteristics excuses. But it does help us look upstream to say, what does prevention look like? Which of the young men less likely to use violence online? Those who say they've got a network of friends and social support. They have something that contrasts the harm they're seeing online that says the world does not have to be like this.

This particularly male friends who call them out when they're participating in such violence. We've also been observing some of the platforms, particularly some gaming platforms, and doing analysis using AI. It's one of the things we can use in favor of our work as well to look at what seems to drive harmful content. If an influential man in that space calls out the violence, it begins to stop like a ripple. Any of you scuba dive or snorkel, you watch when that group of fish goes like that.

When one of them jumps, it kind of looks like that. If there's a man brave enough to speak out, many other men are following. So I think this does tell us this violence is preventable. What are we doing to fill the space with more positive content? We're working with gaming content creators, we're working with moderators and influencers.

It is not hard to find them. These are young men who also want to make online spaces safer. I should also add a piece of our research. While I absolutely agree with Olympia, these are not equal forms of violence. It is important to understand as well.

About 40% of men tell us they've experienced bullying online and particularly homophobic bullying online. Young men don't like negative comments and the misogyny and the homophobia that happens online as well. I think we've got to tap into that sense that young men want online spaces to be better as well. I offer all this just to affirm young men are awaiting instructions from us on how to make online spaces safer for all of us. Again, I'll just reinforce the point I made at the beginning.

This violence is not inevitable. Young men are ready. Some are ready to be our allies. We're not yet asking them. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Gary Barker. That was refreshing to hear. Thank you so much for that. And we need more information on that. I do hope that we can access your research.

That would be very helpful for all of us. I'd like to call in a feminist technologist and the executive director of the Social Web Foundation. She advances an open, interoperable social web grounded in human rights and gender justice. Mallory Nodel. Hi.

Thank you. Thanks very much for inviting me. It is an absolute pleasure to be talking to you about this. I'm going to really, I think, talk a lot more about the tech solutions, if you'll allow me. I've spent my career as a feminist, but also as a technologist.

And I feel the bridge between these worlds is really crucial. And thanks to the association for Progressive Communications, who couldn't be there, who invited me to this panel, and who also work at that really critical intersection of tech and women's rights. So I'm going to talk about the architecture of the Internet and emerging technology for a minute because I think the technology really does shape what content and behavior is possible, what's amplified, what, what's deterred. And so from my perspective at the Social Web foundation and from the technical community where standards are set, I see three places where tech and policy solutions can be effective. But they all come with caveats.

They're not all individually great solutions. I think we have to take them as a whole in order to address the entire ecosystem. So first we have to think about the safety by design of these platforms rather than thinking of it as an afterthought. And also I think we need to do that because we want to avoid banning or preventing people from accessing all platforms. I think we want an open ecosystem that's very inclusive.

And so when we push off safety into later on treating them like features or failing to achieve those outcomes and we resort to bans, I think everyone loses. And I think we would all agree that those or bad outcomes. So platform infrastructure choices, things like default privacy settings, creating friction before sharing intimate content, for example, creating technical hooks for things like manipulated media detection, the ability to do attribution and then follow up accountability, all of those things influence whether or not the abuse that we see online can scale to the degree that we've seen it. So the design really becomes policy. Technical standards bodies are crucial in this and then having human rights experts in those bodies is crucial for this because it's they who can help balance equities.

The drawback here is what I've said means we have to balance rights. So for example, age gating or making platforms inaccessible to young people, for example, this might solve some problems, but it has trade offs because it can disenfranchise youth from their human rights like free expression, right to privacy, as well as some economic, cultural and social rights. So again, not a perfect solution, but it's something we can look at. Second is on the accountability that can be embedded in infrastructure. And I think the EU's regulatory environment is a really good example.

The Digital Services act is powerful because it goes beyond just simple content takedown and tries to define systemic risk obligations, which is a lot more intelligible to people like me and others working in standards bodies to try to enact at the protocol and platform level, instead of just pure outputs and content takedown. I'll also say that the Digital Markets act is great too, because it indicates interoperability as a core tenet, mostly for breaking up a consolidated digital ecosystem. But we also think there's a really strong case for why interoperability across platforms is needed for accountability structures that work across all platforms. And that's my third piece. My third suggestion is this idea of interoperability everywhere.

One of the issues we have right now is that these platforms are castles. They create moats, they have walled gardens. All of these metaphors indicate that it's very hard for the external researchers, communities like yours, to get answers and to understand dynamics. What would help is if we could open these systems to be more interoperable with one another. That also gives us all agency.

If we don't like the content or the style of delivery of content on certain platforms, we can leave and go elsewhere and we can bring our friends and our contacts with us. We can bring our content with us. This interoperability piece is a technical term, but it has really awesome implications, again, for agency and for accountability so that we can solve these problems once at a high norm setting level. And it can be effective everywhere, immediately, rather than having to go platform by platform by platform and rely on individual compliance. Right.

So my. So in sum, and I'll stop here, I feel the efficient solutions when we merge technical design and regulatory action, that effectively open the technical architecture and these regulatory incentives such that human rights can be balanced by experts like you and technical experts that we can then avoid this issue of safety being an optional feature that's added on later on, or that we have to ban certain populations from using certain platforms. I think this is a bit more durable of an approach. Thanks. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mallory.

And I think that was quite strong. What you said was creating safety before you actually release the platform and not after. And our last panelist for this is, he's from the Snapchat community. And it's very important to know specifically what Snapchat is doing, because young people are on Snapchat, frankly, more than I believe they are on Facebook. So we'd like to call in Viraj Doshi.

Hi. Thank you everyone and thank you for the invitation to be here. It's a an honor to be here. My name is Viraj Doshi. I help lead our platform safety team at Snap.

And so what our team is focused on is the nexus of policy and product internally at Snap and being in rooms like this where we can take feedback from civil society policymakers and young people, adults, teachers, educators, back to the internal teams working on the broader safety of the Snapchat community. I want to comment on a couple things that actually Mallory just said. I'm in 100% agreement that safety by design is a core and critical piece for all platforms to consider. And something that we're thinking through is beyond safety by design. What are ways that we can kind of push platforms to think about safety by default?

So when you create a profile on any sort of platform, what sort of default features already exist or what sort of default settings already exist that encourage more safe behavior? Part of our team's role and one of the initiatives that we lead is called the Digital well Being Index Research. This is research that we lead that surveys young people and teens, as well as parents of teens, about what sort of online risk teens are facing. Today, we survey 10,000 teens and parents from across six different countries, the U.S. the U.K. germany, France, India, and Australia. And we get a sense of kind of what they're experiencing online, not just on Snapchat, but just generally speaking, what they're seeing online.

I want to kind of highlight some of the insights here. And this is all publicly available, so if you just search on Google Digital well Being Index, Snapchat, you'll be able to find the latest results of all this. What we heard is that 75% of young people experience some sort of online risk. Now, that could be. That could range from cyberbullying to a more acute risk like sextortion.

What we also heard is that 50% of the young respondents of the survey said that they were involved in some sort of intimate imagery exchange. 37% said that they were asked to share intimate imagery, 39% said that they received intimate imagery, and 21% said that they shared intimate imagery. So I think that's a really core piece to keep in mind that this is happening. And it's important for us to kind of keep that in mind, both as platforms and civil society, and just generally speaking as adults, to know that this sort of behavior is happening. And what can we do to kind of step in to make sure that young people know what sort of risks are involved when they do that?

Interestingly, what we found also is that 60% of people, when they said that they exchanged some sort of intimate imagery, said that they lost control of those images. Now when they lose control of those images, that creates an opportunity for abusers and bad actors to take advantage. So what we heard, 50% of respondents said that they were sextortion targets. And by sextortion targets, they were catfished, they were experiencing grooming behavior, their devices were hacked, and 21% were threatened with sextortion. So taking that sort of data helps inform some of the work that we do.

I want to talk about one specific product feature that I'm really proud of that we implemented over the past couple years that I think is a great response to this. And I just got a note saying to kindly conclude. So I'm going to do this really quickly. What we heard is we know that this is a risk factor. So on Snapchat, in order to start a conversation, both parties have to accept the friend.

Instead of specifically for teens, what we've introduced is, is an in conversation prompt. So if Mallory sends me a friend request, but I have very low mutual friends or no mutual friends with Mallory, as opposed to just being able to confirm, we now provide a message saying, hey Mallory, or hey Viraj, are you sure you want to be friends with Mallory? You don't have any mutual friends with this person. This is really powerful because it puts more information, information that companies like Snapchat have in the hands of users who for them to make empowered decisions. We saw in the first six months of that in conversation prompt led to 12 million blocks within the first six months.

As a result, we introduced new conversation prompts. So if Mallory's not in the same location as I am or the same geographical area, we say, hey Viraj, are you sure you want to accept this friend request? Mallory isn't in your geographical region? Or if Mallory has been reported or blocked by many others, we also provide that sort of information to the user so they can make an informed decision as to whether or not they want to accept that friend request and start that conversation again. There's many more things I'd love to talk about and would love to continue the conversation after this panel.

But just in conclusion, just want to say that I'm very, very honored to be here. Love the conversation so far and open to any and all feedback that folks have in the room for how we can make both our Snapchat community, but also the broader online community safer. Thank you very much.

Viraj, I just want to ask, this is very quick, if you can answer just 15 seconds. Does Snapchat have a feature that actually detects if a young user is sending a naked photo and is there an AI component that immediately prevents or bans it?

Right. So Snap as well as many other tech platforms, leverage technology that can automatically detect child sexual Abuse material. There's different terms. So there's ways of identifying known images, known videos, and now there's ways to identify never before seen videos and images. We leverage that sort of technology to stop that sort of imagery from being spread, spread initially.

And then we also participate across with other companies where we share information with each other and signals with each other where we can identify bad actors. So if someone is acting poorly on one platform or is abusing children on one platform, that platform is able to share that information with another so that we can proactively take steps before that sort of behavior shows up on ours.

All right, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Once again, Mr. Viraj Doshi.

We have some short interventions from the floor. We only have until 11:15 for this room and perhaps just straightforward. I'd like to start first with Ms. Emmer Higgins, the Minister of State of the Department of Children, Disability and Equality of Ireland.

Good morning, Commissioner, Ministers, Delegates, it's an absolute privilege to be here this morning to participate in this discussion about a threat that's emerging and evolving. The online worlds of social media and interactive gaming were designed to connect us, not to abuse us. But online spaces are becoming more and more negative spaces and that's enabling new forms of domestic and sexual and gender based violence. New forms of online harassment, exploitation and abuse of not just women, but also girls. Harmful masculinities, hateful rhetoric, misinformation and disinformation.

Campaigns are aiming to suppress and to silence women. And that's why discussions like this are so important. That's why it's fantastic to see a full chamber here today made up primarily of women who are here speaking up, shaping policies, devising strategies, influencing legislation right across the globe. Olympia asks us, what will we tell the girls of the future? And that's not just a question for us women, That's a question for men and women.

That's a question for boys and girls. That's a question for developers and regulators. In Ireland, we have a zero tolerance for domestic sexual and gender based violence and strategies around that. Just four months ago, we launched our new national strategy for women and girls. And in Ireland, we have Coco's Law, a law that makes it illegal not just to distribute and publish intimate images without consent, but that makes it illegal to threaten to do so.

And that extends to deepfakes. We will continue to work to strengthen victim reporting, awareness raising and to improve online safety and gender will be looked at in this context as part of our EU presidency. Thank you.

Thank you very much, ma'. Am.

Now I'd like to invite Ms. Lena Galvez from the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality. Hello. Yeah, so, thank you. Thank you very much. I'm honored on behalf of the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee at the European Parliament to be here because we are dealing with probably one of the most important aspect we have to come.

But now the rise of the digital technology represents a double edged sword for women's rights. On the one hand, it has been permitted us to connect solidarity. I mean, MeToo movement is a very good example recently at the European Union, my voice, my choice on sexual and reproductive health rights. But also to. On the other hand, it has allow abusers a misogynistic networks to advance.

It's a preferred space now for digital gender violence and also say for gender backlash. Not only because there are a lot of resources behind these narratives, but also because the business model itself wants people to stay connected. And people stay connected, unfortunately, more because of hate than because of love of other.

They were presented last week at the European Parliament study saying that in certain platforms I would not mention which it takes only 23 minutes if they discover there is a young man entering 23 minutes to propose misogynistic and anti gender narratives. Only 23 minutes. So. So we have to be aware also that digital violence against women not only affect women and girls directly suffering from this violence. Muchas gracias, Olivia Porso.

Thank you very much, Olivia, for surviving and for fighting for all of us. Of course, I was saying a girl and women who have suffered. It is affecting all us. It is a way to discipline all us. It is also a way of not allowing us to participate in the public space.

And this is this goal especially for women in politics, for women in opinion journalists. Our commissioner was a former journalist, so she knows very well how it is to be exposed. And now in the digital is a way to say all that not being so at the end, this is affecting our democracy. So at the European Union I go very fast. We have, it has been say a very important legislation.

We did very important steps. The directive on violence against women really covers as offenses the non consensual sharing of intimate and manipulated material and civil stroking and others. The AA act. This is important. Let me finish with them included that certain uses are banned, but not artificial intelligence notification apps that are not explicitly in the laws currently of ban practices.

Maybe because, as the commissioner was saying, everything is going very fast. Maybe because we still lack of gender mainstreaming in our legislation and policies or mainly also because the director have a lot of detractors behind that. And just one thing please let me because we are working a lot on that and so it's a lot to be done. Mexico is opening a very interesting but don't forget that we need more much more Olympia but also much more Mallory. Thank you.

We need more women on stem. Thank you very much. Thank you for me to talk thank you ma'. Am. My apologies.

So I don't mean to be rude. I believe the next country is they want to take the room so our last speaker I hope we can keep it strong and short. Ms. Nijina Alizoda, the Minister of Foreign affairs of Tajikistan to close please

Ma', am Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, Tajikistan welcomes the organization of this important discussion on preventing and combating cyber violence against girls. Digital technologies today shape how young people learn, communicate and interact with the world.

They create new opportunities for education, innovation and empowerment. At the same time, they also introduce new risks particular for girls and young women. In Tajikistan, the relevance of this issue is particularly clear. Our country has a very young population with around 68% of the citizen under the age of 30. At the same time, digital connectivity is expanding rapidly, with more than half of the population now using the Internet.

As more young people come online, ensuring safe digital spaces becomes increasingly important. Tajikistan has also made strong progress in expanding access to education, including for girls. As girls gain great access to to digital technologies, protecting them from online harassment, exploitation and other form of cyber violence must remain a priority. Tajikistan also recognizes the increased digitalization can create new opportunities for criminal networks to target and exploit women and girls, including through human trafficking for sexual exploitation. In this regard, Tajikistan is an Advisory board member of the UN Women's Network of Gender Champions Against Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling.

We note that the Internet and digital platforms provide trafficking and smugglers with new tools to identify victims, organize criminal activities and conceal illicit profits. At the same time, technology can also strengthen the response of law enforcement and criminal justice system in combating this crimes. In recent years, artificial intelligence technologies have become increasingly embedded in our society. AI has significant potential to support efforts to combat cyber violence, including through tools and assist in identifying vulnerable victims, strengthening emergency response system and improving investigative capacities. At the same time, AI technology also carries risk and limitations that require careful consideration, consideration and responsible use.

Addressing these challenges requires a comprehensive approach, prevention, digital literacy, accountability and responsible technology governance must go hand in hand. At the international level, Tajikistan has been actively promoting responsible and inclusive digital development. In this context, we initiated the UN General assembly resolution on the role of artificial intelligence in creating new opportunities for sustainable development in Central Asia. Highlighting the importance of ensuring that emerging technologies contribute to inclusive and sustainable development. We also welcome the commitment reflected in the Global Digital Compact which recognize the need to address online gender based violence and promote safe digital environment for women and girls.

Dear colleagues, ensuring safe digital spaces for girls is not only a matter of protection, it is also a matter of empowerment. Girls must be able to learn, communicate and innovate online without fear. Tajikistan remains commitment to working with all partners to ensure that digital technologies become a force of equality, safety and opportunity for every girl. Thank you. Thank you very much, ma'.

Am. Thank you for sharing what Tajikistan is doing. And as we bring this event to a close, my pleasure to invite UN Women Deputy Executive Director Ms. Kirsty Maddy to deliver the closing remarks.

Thank you so much. Karen and I will be very, very short because we all have to move to other meetings, but I really want to take a moment to thank the European Union and thank Cyprus for convening this extremely important and relevant conversation and for your leadership really in preventing and combating combating violence against women and girls everywhere, and particularly in the cyberspace.

Your leadership is reaffirming the critical principle that the safety, rights and dignity of women and girls must be protected everywhere, anytime, online and offline. Addressing technology facilitated violence against women and girls is a priority for UN women, including through our recently launched strategy to prevent and respond to this form of violence and to ensure access to justice for survivors. Cyber Violence Gender based cyber violence is not inevitable. It is a result of choices that are being taken. It is about the laws, about policies, about technologies and about whose voices are are valued and protected.

These choices can be reshaped by the leadership and action by all of us. I thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you so much for being at this event this morning. And we do hope you learned something and will take it home with you to your respective countries. Have a wonderful day everybody.