Social media abuse drives girls off Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: poll
06 October, 2020
Online abuse is driving girls to give up social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, with practically 60% experiencing harassment, a worldwide study showed on Sunday.
One in five girls and young women has abandoned or cut down on by using a social media platform after being targeted, with some saying harassment started if they were as young as eight, the survey by girls' rights group Plan International showed.
"Girls are being silenced by a toxic degree of harassment," said the organisation's chief executive, Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen.
Attacks were most common on Facebook, where 39% of girls polled said that they had been harassed, accompanied by Instagram (23%), WhatsApp (14%), Snapchat (10%), Twitter (9%) and TikTok (6%).
The charity, that may share the report with social media companies and lawmakers all over the world, said the abuse was suppressing girls' voices at the same time when the COVID-19 pandemic was increasing the importance of communicating online.
It called on social media companies to take urgent action to handle the issue and urged governments to pass laws to cope with online harassment.
The analysis found reporting tools were ineffective in stopping the abuse, which included explicit messages, pornographic photos and cyberstalking.
Nearly half of girls targeted have been threatened with physical or sexual violence, in line with the poll. Many said the abuse took a mental toll, and 25 % felt physically unsafe.
"It is time because of this to stop. Girls shouldn't have to put up with behavior online which would be criminal on the streets," the report said.
Facebook and Instagram said they used artificial intelligence to find bullying content, constantly monitored users' reports of abuse and always removed rape threats.
"Keeping women safe on our apps is critical and we invest heavily in keeping abuse off our platforms," said Cindy Southworth, head of women's safety at Facebook.
She said Facebook was working with Plan International to raised understand how it could support young women all over the world.
Twitter said in addition, it used technology to catch abusive content and has launched tools to boost users' control over their conversations.
The survey polled 14,000 girls and young women aged 15 to 25 in 22 countries including Brazil, India, Nigeria, Spain, Thailand and america.
Albrectsen said activists, including those campaigning for gender equality and on LGBT+ issues, were often targeted particularly viciously, and their lives and families threatened.
"Driving girls out of online spaces is hugely disempowering within an increasingly digital world, and damages their capability to be seen, heard and be leaders," she added.
Within an open letter to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter, girls from all over the world called on social media companies to create far better methods to report abuse.
"We use (your platforms) not simply to hook up with friends, but to lead and create change. However they are not safe for us. We get harassed and abused on them. Every. Single. Day," they wrote.
"As this global pandemic moves our lives online, we are more at risk than ever before."
Plan International also urged the firms to do more to hold to account those behind such abuse, and to acquire data on the scale of the problem.
Source: japantoday.com