TOOLKIT
Addressing technology-facilitated gender-based violence requires a coordinated approach across multiple sectors.
It also requires complex safety planning and support for survivors to address the interplay of in-person and online harms, potentially by multiple perpetrators.
Cyberstalking - The unwanted pursuit, harassment, or contact of others using electronics.
Doxing - The public release of private and sensitive personal information about someone without their permission.
Hate Speech - The use of harmful language that encourages violence toward a person or a group of people based on an identifying feature, such as their religion, gender, ethnicity, disability or other identity factor.
Image-based abuse
Impersonation - The creation of fake online accounts or fake content to spread false information and damage the reputation of the person they are pretending to be.
Internet-based sex trafficking - The use of online platforms by sex traffickers to exploit victims and connect with buyers.
Monitoring and surveillance - Using technology to control someone’s behavior by tracking their location, taking pictures, eavesdropping, and gaining access to their email, social media, or other online accounts. This can also include monitoring someone’s personal health information, like their period, by apps or other tech.
Online Sexual Harassment - The use of a variety of unwanted digital communication, which can involve a brief incident, such as a single targeted racist or sexist comment or a long-term organized attack.
Sexting - The act of electronically sending or receiving sexually explicit photos, texts, or video messages.
Sexploitation - The commercial exploitation of sex or sexual exploitation material in the media.
Voyeurism - A person sneakily taking photos or recording a video of another person for a sexual purpose.
Sources:
Dictionary.com Sexting Definition. (n.d.)
Dunn, S. (2020). Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence: An Overview. Supporting a Safer Internet Paper No 1, Waterloo: Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Sextortion Overview. (n.d.)
Sex Trafficking: Online Platforms and Federal Prosecutions. GAO-21-385 Publicly Released: Jun 21, 2021.
Technology and Sexual Assault (2017). Safety Net Project Technology Safety.
Are you experiencing online harassment or other gender-based violence?
The National Domestic Violence Hotline conducted a 2022 survey focused on Online Harassment and abuse. Of 960 respondents:
45% experienced cyberstalking
27% were threatened with the posting of sexual images without their permission
Recent Developments in the Law and Guidance for Supporting Survivors
National Women's Law Center | December 5, 2024
This webinar covers technology's role in facilitating sexual harassment and gender-based violence, legislative updates affecting survivor support, and advocacy strategies for attorneys handling technology-facilitated abuse cases.
Navigating Challenges to Relationships & Identity
EndTAB | December 5, 2024
Dr. Saed D. Hill discussed healthy masculinity in the age of AI, introducing AI-Manipulated Masculinity (AIMM). They highlighted alarming trends like AI Girlfriends, Undressing Apps, AI Pimping, Virtual Influencers, and Sexualized AI Therapists, examining strategies to navigate these challenges.
U.S. Department of Education’s National Center on Safe and Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE) | November 8, 2023
This webinar featured experts discussing the nature, prevalence, and impact of cyberbullying and harassment on youth. It also explored digital citizenship and wellness as frameworks to prevent online bullying and support victims.
Prosecuting Image Exploitation
AEquitas | August 9, 2022
This presentation explores the various forms of image exploitation and the types of statutes under which this abuse can be prosecuted. The presenter provides strategies to introduce relevant digital evidence while ethically safeguarding victim privacy. Resources are also provided to support victims who would like to explore non-criminal avenues of achieving justice.
AEquitas is a nonprofit organization focused on developing, evaluating, and refining prosecution practices related to sexual violence, intimate partner violence, stalking, and human trafficking. AEquitas partners with Stalking Prevention, Awareness, and Resource Center (SPARC) on the project Just Tech: Investigation and Prosecution of Online Abuse. Just Tech will provide practical, accessible training and technical assistance on the investigation and prosecution of online abuse — including cyberstalking, doxing, online harassment, and image exploitation.
CCRI’s Mission is to combat online abuses that threaten civil rights and civil liberties. They run the CCRI Safety Center, which provides resources for victims and survivors of image-based sexual abuse, including a directory of attorneys and summaries of state laws on image-based abuse. They also operate the CCRI Image Abuse Helpline at 1-844-878-2274, which is available free of charge, 24/7.
Without my Consent is a project of CCRI that provides resources for survivors of image-based abuse, including their Something Can Be Done! Guide.
Safety Net is a project of NNEDV that focuses on the intersection of technology and abuse. They work to address how that abuse impacts the safety and privacy of survivors. Their team provides expert training and technical assistance, creates and disseminates resources, and influences conversations on technology abuse and safety globally. This includes the Technology Safety & Privacy: A Toolkit for Survivors.
WomensLaw.org provides information geared to supporting all victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking who are wanting to end an abusive relationship and often navigating the legal system on their own. They have specific resources on Abuse Using Technology.
EndTAB provides training and resources for schools, companies and organizations nationwide, empowering non-tech experts to navigate and address abuse in the digital age.
A project of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, Love is Respect offers 24/7 information, support, and advocacy to young people between the ages of 13 and 26 who have questions or concerns about their romantic relationships. They also provide support to concerned friends and family members, teachers, counselors, and other service providers through the same free and confidential services via phone, text, and live chat. They also offer specific resources on online safety while dating.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides essential tools and support to help survivors of domestic violence so they can live their lives free of abuse. Contacts to The Hotline can expect highly-trained, expert advocates to offer free, confidential, and compassionate support, crisis intervention information, education, and referral services in over 200 languages, available 24/7. They also offer specific resources on internet safety.
Relationships
Read more about the different ways abusive partners can weaponize technology, and learn how to improve digital privacy and security with these resources on:
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
NetSmartz is NCMEC's online safety education program. It provides age-appropriate videos and activities to help teach children to be safer online with the goal of helping children to become more aware of potential online risks and empowering them to help prevent victimization by making safer choices on- and offline.
NNEDV
Topics include Digital Breakups, Digital Consent, Bystander Intervention, Examples of Technology Abuse, How to Talk to Young People About Digital Safety Planning, Location Sharing Uses and Misuses, Safer Dating Toolkit, Safety, Privacy, & Empowerment, and Social Media and Media Literacy
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
This guide provides an overview of digital teen dating violence, online abuse tactics, and the challenges in teen dating violence cases.
Savvy Cyber Kids
Training topics include:
Parenting
Topics include Social Media Usage, Grooming, Creating a Safe Space to Talk About Risky Online Encounters, Sextortion: Prevention & Response, and Sending Nudes: Trust, Consent, and Understanding the Risks
The CCRI Safety Center can support survivors of sexually explicit images (whether real or AI-generated) shared without consent. Their resources include a directory of attorneys and summaries of state laws on image-based abuse. They also operate the CCRI Image Abuse Helpline at 1-844-878-2274, which is available free of charge, 24/7.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides highly-trained, expert advocates to offer free, confidential, and compassionate support, crisis intervention information, education, and referral services in over 200 languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Phone: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or Text “START” to 88788
StopNCII is a free, confidential online tool operated by the Revenge Porn Helpline in the U.K. and is available to anyone who seeks to prevent their intimate images from being shared without their consent. It creates a digital hash of your image(s) that is scanned across participating platforms that will remove any images that match.
Right to Be is a nonprofit whose mission is to build safe, inclusive public spaces by transforming the culture that perpetuates harassment and discrimination.
The toolkit is the culmination of effort by leadership at the New York City Clinic to End Tech Abuse (CETA) and one of the founders of Seattle's Technology-Enabled Coercive Control Clinic (TECCC)
The CyberTipline is the place to report child sexual exploitation if you are, or were at the time, under 18 and may have been the victim of sexual exploitation or abuse. This is also the place to make a report if you have information about the possible sexual exploitation and/or abuse of a child.
Take it Down is a free, anonymous service operated by NCMEC that can help remove or stop the online sharing of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images or videos taken of individuals under 18. It creates a digital hash of your image(s) that is scanned across participating platforms that will remove any images that match.
Thorn’s text line is available by texting "Thorn" to 741741, where a trained Crisis Text Line counselor will respond.
VAWA primarily focuses on addressing domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. The 2022 reauthorization of VAWA added a definition of “technological abuse” for the purposes of providing support to survivors who experience technological abuse.
The definition of Technological Abuse is found at 34 USC § 12291(a)(40):
The term "technological abuse" means an act or pattern of behavior that occurs within domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence or stalking and is intended to harm, threaten, intimidate, control, stalk, harass, impersonate, exploit, extort, or monitor, except as otherwise permitted by law, another person, that occurs using any form of technology, including but not limited to: internet enabled devices, online spaces and platforms, computers, mobile devices, cameras and imaging programs, apps, location tracking devices, or communication technologies, or any other emerging technologies.
Office for Access to Justice of the U.S. Department of Justice. (September 2024)
Read "Sharing of Intimate Images Without Consent: Know Your Rights"
Signed into law on May 19, 2025, this bill generally prohibits the nonconsensual online publication of intimate visual depictions of individuals, both authentic and computer-generated, and requires certain online platforms to promptly remove such depictions upon receiving notice of their existence.
Laws by state as of July 2025 on Nonconsensual Distribution of Intimate Images (NDII), Sexually Explicit Digital Forgeries ("Deep fakes"), and Sextortion
Programs across the nation that are leading the way in addressing addressing gender-based violence.
The Clinic to End Tech Abuse (CETA) is a unique clinic in NYC providing resources, research, advocacy, and a tech clinic to help survivors of intimate partner violence experiencing technology-facilitated abuse. CETA's mission is to work with survivors and service providers to understand and combat tech-facilitated harm.
