In a survey conducted by the National Domestic Violence Hotline in 2022, 45% of respondents reported experiencing cyberstalking; 27% reported being threatened with the posting of intimate/sexual images without their permission; and 17% reported having intimate images posted without their permission (NDVH, 2022).
Additionally:
1 in 3 women
under the age of 35 reports being sexually harassed online in the United States.
More than 50% of LGBTQI+ individuals
report being the target of severe online abuse, including sustained harassment, physical threats, and stalking in addition to sexual harassment in the United States.
32% of women and 15% of men
experienced cyber sexual harassment according to a 2024 national study.
Globally,
half of girls
report that they are more likely to be harassed online than on the street.
Young people are especially impacted by online harassment and abuse, given their high use of social media, including Image-Based Sexual Abuse and Sextortion.
A 2022 national study found that 15.6% of youth are exposed to online child sexual exploitation, including: 11% are exposed to image-based sexual abuse; 7.2% experience nonconsensual sexting; and 5.4% experience online grooming by adults.
Of those who sexted, 37% reported image abuse.
Sexting also led to higher risk of other types of sexual abuse
1 in 8 personally knows someone who has been targeted
(Thorn, 2024).
The perpetrators were usually people they knew.
81% of them had also been the target of traditional dating abuse.
Consequences for victims, range from psychological distress, self-censorship, and decreased participation in political and civic life, to economic losses, disruptions to education, increased self-harm, suicide, homicide, and other forms of physical and sexual violence.
Digital technologies are also often used in concert with other forms of abuse and harassment, which underscores the urgency of addressing the interplay of in-person and online harms. The experiences of survivors of tech-facilitated harm are also often minimized in severity by society compared to physical or in-person harm.
Victims also reported a lack of support from the criminal justice system and lasting distrust of technology post-abuse.
Intimate leaves victim-survivors feeling isolated, with many severely restricting their online and offline interactions as a result. These impacts negatively impact women’s rights to participate in public and political life. Intimate Image Abuse (IIA), deepens harmful social norms around gender and sexuality, including the normalization of sexual violence linked to the rise in online misogynistic content. It drives other forms of GBV, often in racist and discriminatory ways.
Intimate image abuse (IIA) has devastating individual impacts on victims-survivors, leaving them feeling isolated, with many severely restricting their online and offline interactions as a result. These impacts are seen across workplaces and sectors, negatively impacting women’s rights to participate in public and political life. IIA, as evidenced with TFGBV more broadly, is deepening harmful social norms around gender and sexuality, including the normalization of sexual violence linked to the rise in online misogynistic content. It is exacerbating social norms and gender biases that drive other forms of GBV, often in racist and discriminatory ways.
Support tools are available in MOSAIC's online safety toolkit for survivor advocates.