The Nature of Technology-Facilitated Violence and Abuse among Young Adults in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Incidents of violence perpetrated through digital technology platforms or facilitated by these means have been reported, often in high-income countries. Very little scholarly attention has been given to the nature of Technology-Facilitated violence and abuse (TFVA) across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) despite an explosion in the use of various technologies. We conducted a literature review to identify and harmonize available data relating to the types of TFVA taking place in SSA. This was followed by an online survey of young adults through the SHYad.NET forum to understand the nature of TFVA among young adults in SSA. Our literature review revealed various types of TFVA to be happening across SSA, including cyberbullying, cyberstalking, trolling, dating abuse, image-based sexual violence, sextortion, and revenge porn. The results of our online survey revealed that both young men and women experience TFVA, with the most commonly reported TFVA being receiving unwanted sexually explicit images, comments, emails, or text messages. Female respondents more often reported repeated and/or unwanted sexual requests online via email or text message while male respondents more often reported experiencing violent threats. Respondents used various means to cope with TFVA including blocking the abuser or deleting the abused profile on social media.

Sexuality Education in the Digital Age: Modelling the Predictors of Acceptance and Behavioural Intention to Access and Interact with Sexuality Information on Social Media

“…Besides, nearly half of all pregnancies among young women in developing countries, including sub-Saharan Africa, are unintended and result in a significantly high number of unintended births and unsafe abortions (Darroch et al, 2016). More than 80% of young men and women in sub-Saharan African countries also reported being victims of technology-facilitated sexual, gender-based and other forms of violence (Makinde et al, 2021). Given the scale of sexual health challenges in African countries, there is an increasing need to reduce infection rates, unplanned pregnancies, and other related abuses among adolescents and young adults in the region.…”

Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence and Abuse in Low and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review

“…Image-Based Sexual Abuse. The non-consensual taking, sharing, or threats to share personal, intimate images or videos were reported in most of the included studies, highlighting how IBSA is used to blackmail, humiliate, or perpetrate emotional abuse (França & Quevedo, 2020;Hassan et al, 2020;Jatmiko et al, 2020;Makinde et al, 2021;Sarkar & Rajan, 2021;Zagloul et al, 2022). A study conducted by Zagloul et al (2022) of Egyptian women (n = 563) found that more than half (51.9%) of study participants experienced non-consensual pornography.…”

“…Monitoring Through Digital Technologies. Some studies found that women were being monitored or their activities tracked through digital tools and technologies (Hassan et al, 2020;Makinde et al, 2021). An online survey of Egyptian women found that 1 in 10 (11.5%, total n = 148) reported that their online and offline activities were monitored or tracked, 6% said that their private data and/or photos were accessed and spread without permission and 5% reported that their movements were tracked (Hassan et al, 2020).…”

“…Individual Responses to TFSVA. A wide range of individual actions were identified as victim-survivors disconnected or disengaged themselves from virtual life through: disabling, deleting or changing social media profiles or phone numbers; or ceasing to use the internet (Alsawalqa, 2021;Hassan et al, 2020;Makinde et al, 2021). They also imposed some "selfcensoring" strategies to minimize or reduce the risk of being harassed by limiting using social media and the internet (e.g., posting fewer photos, videos, and comments), removing personal photos or using non-face photos in social media (Koirala, 2020;Kundu & Bhuiyan, 2021;Sambasivan et al, 2019;Tandoc et al, 2021).…”

“…Informal Channels of Help-seeking. Seeking support from family members, friends, and other close ones were the most commonly reported sources of support (Makinde et al, 2021;Sambasivan et al, 2019). Sambasivan et al's (2019) study found that 47% of victim-survivors (n = 199) disclosed incidents to family members or friends.…”