Social Media and Stalking: Q&A with the Safety Net Team

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The Safety Net team recently wrote an article on social media and stalking for the New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence. Check out the full Q&A here!

Here is a snippet of some of the questions and answers:

Q: What is social media?
A: Social media is user generated content that promotes engagement, sharing, and collaboration. It includes a wide range of websites and applications that can be accessible from computers, smart phones, and tablets. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are three of the most popular social media platforms, although there are many more. 

Q: How do abusers misuse social media?
A: Abusers misuse social media as a tool to harass, manipulate, and threaten. Abusers often send harassing messages or post offensive images – even explicit images of the victim that may or may not have been taken with consent (sometimes referred to as “revenge porn”). 

Q: How do survivors safely use social media? 
A: Social media usually involves sharing personal information. Users should look at privacy options and take note of what will always be public and what they have more control over. Some sites have rules against using fake names while others allow it. Many sites encourage users to share their location as well. Survivors should only share information that they are comfortable with. 

Q: What can a survivor do if an abuser is misusing online spaces? 
A: It depends on what the survivor wants to happen. One important step is documenting all contact and harassment. The survivor can take screenshots or photographs of the activity. A few platforms, like SnapChat, will tell the sender if the recipient takes a screenshot, so it might be safer to take a picture of the screen since notification may escalate abusive behavior. The survivor can also save all messages. It may be tempting to hit delete to make them disappear, but original messages will be important for evidence. 

Read the full article here.

 

Safety and Privacy on Facebook: A Guide for Survivors of Abuse

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This week is the National Network to End Domestic Violence’s inaugural Technology Summit conference, where several staff from Facebook are joining to share their expertise and brainstorm how we can all better support survivors of abuse. In addition, we have teamed up with Facebook to produce an informative guide on privacy and safety for survivors. We are excited about this publication since we know how important it is to survivors to remain connected, both offline and online, to family and friends, while also maintaining their privacy and safety. 

Since joining Facebook’s Safety Advisory Board in 2010, the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) has embraced its partnership with Facebook to consistently support the needs of victims of domestic violence, dating abuse, cyber-stalking and teen dating violence.

Privacy and safety go hand in hand for survivors. The most dangerous time for a victim of abuse is when they are preparing to leave or have left an abusive partner. It’s at this time that there is an increased likelihood of an escalation in violence and risk for lethality. It is critical that survivors have the information that they need to navigate their lives safely and, in today’s digital age, a significant part of our lives are online. 

We believe that survivors have the right to experience and live online (and offline) safely. We sometimes hear that survivors should just “get offline” if they are concerned about an abuser finding them or contacting them. This is not a solution. Survivors shouldn’t have to live their lives avoiding every possible situation that the abusive person could misuse. They can’t control that person’s behavior and we should work to continuously hold abusers accountable for their actions. Abusers go to devastating lengths to isolate their victims from family and friends. It is vital that survivors are able to safely rebuild those important connections, using Facebook and other social networks. Telling a victim to go offline to be safe is not only unacceptable, it further isolates her from people who love her. Our role, as advocates, professionals, friends, and family, is to make sure that survivors know the options to maintain their safety. That’s the empowering strategy – helping survivors take back the control that abusers have tried to steal from their lives. 

This guide addresses privacy on Facebook, as well as safety tips and options for when someone is misusing the site to harass, monitor, threaten, or stalk.  It refers back to Facebook’s Help Center in several places for more detailed information on settings and features – a site that all Facebook users should check out. 

We hope that this guide helps survivors of abuse know how to stay connected through social media while continuing to maintain their safety.

To read our full how-to guide, as well as learn more about Facebook’s Safety Advisory Board, please visit Facebook's Family Safety Center. 

NNEDV is one of five member organizations comprising Facebook’s Safety Advisory Board, along with Childnet International, ConnectSafely.org, The Family Online Safety Institute and WiredSafety.