Cyber Violence against Women and Girls: Gender-based Violence in the Digital Age and Future Challenges as a Consequence of Covid-19

Abstract

Gender-based violence and discrimination against women and girls is a widespread practice that has been affecting society for a long time. With the advent of new technologies and the huge success of social networks as new means of socialization, this gendered violence has expanded from the 'real world' to the digital sphere in a very brief time. Online gender violence has thus become a new problem with respect to the safety and inclusion of the female gender in the cyber space, which sometimes even becomes an extension of the intimate partner violence many women are faced with. The current COVID-19 pandemic has only aggravated this situation, as the figures indicate, and has demonstrated the pressing need to combat these emerging abuses, which will only be satisfied through the adoption of specific laws and the legal acknowledging of cyber violence against women and girls for what it is: an increasing menace to the feminine gender that must be prevented and progressively eradicated.

Keywords: Violence against women and girls, Women's rights, Cybercrime, Social networks, Covid-19 pandemic