Technology & Sexual Assault/Sexual Violence
Technology is woven into the fabric of our daily lives, and sexual violence is a common experience. Because sexual violence and tech are both common, they may happen together. Perpetrators misuse tech to abuse others and cover it up. In addition, a lot of personal information is available online. This can compromise survivors’ privacy. This guide is to help survivors, and people who work with survivors, understand how tech intersects with sexual violence.
Before we start, it’s important to understand that tech is not “the enemy.” Tech can empower survivors as well as be misused to harm them. The misuse is the problem. Here are a few ways survivors can use tech to take back power.
Survivors, and people who support them, can use “digital trails” left by a perpetrator as evidence. This is called documentation. To learn more, see our guide to documentation.
Survivors can use tech to increase their privacy and safety. Some of the guides in our survivor resources toolkit are about how to increase privacy and safety.
For a survivor, increasing their safety may include using tech to talk to supportive people. It may also include connecting to resources that can help. There are some potential resources listed in the Further Resources section of this document.
Survivors can read or participate in online spaces to support their healing.
Technology and the Dynamics of Sexual Assault
In most cases of sexual assault, perpetrators are known to the survivor. They may use positions of trust or power to access victims or avoid consequences. This can be within:
Social groups.
Religious communities.
Schools.
Workplaces.
Health care settings (including in-home care).
Legal settings (jails, prisons, immigration facilities, juvenile detention).
Perpetrators may misuse tech to:
Plan a sexual assault.
Get others involved in sexual harassment campaigns.
Commit sexual assault or other forms of sexual violence.
Heighten the effects of sexual violence on a survivor.
Cover up sexual violence.
Although people in abusive relationships often experience sexual assault from the person abusing them, sexual assault in other contexts can look different from that in domestic violence. Similarly, tech misuse looks different when sexual violence occurs outside of an intimate relationship. The lists below give examples of what it might look like. They are broken down by type of relationship.
Community Leaders (teachers, coaches, religious leaders, hobby group leaders):
Misusing messages and online communities to build trust with victims.
Misusing access to databases to gain information or plan an attack.
Threatening to share embarrassing information or images.
Changing grades or other status.
Community Peers (friends, members of hobby groups, members of ethnic or religious communities):
Misusing messages and online communities to build trust with victims.
Sending messages about an assault to the survivor or others that suggest it was consensual. This can be a tactic to cover up its assaultive nature.
Using the Internet to turn others against a victim. This may be used to recruit others to help a perpetrator.
In an ethnic or religious community, this could include sharing information about a victim that would be considered negative within that community.
Using the Internet to sexually harass a victim.
Creating synthetic (fake) intimate images of a victim. Anyone may do this. However, it is especially common amongst peers.
Blackmailing a victim into sexual activity.
Families (other than intimate partners, such as child sexual abuse or elder abuse):
Creating or sharing child sexual abuse material (“child pornography”).
Online sex trafficking.
Limiting access to tech. This can keep a victim from seeking help or information.
Giving “gifts” (toys, games, devices) that allow them to monitor or access a child.
Workplaces (employers, supervisors, recruiters):
Misusing access to databases to gain information or plan an attack.
Requiring a victim to perform sexual acts in exchange for jobs or promotions.
Threatening a victim’s job.
Misusing surveillance cameras to:
Monitor or humiliate a victim.
Cover up an assault.
Authorities (law enforcement, corrections, immigration, military):
Misusing access to databases to gain information or plan an attack.
Limiting access to accurate information if a victim is trying to seek help.
Misusing surveillance cameras to:
Monitor or humiliate a victim.
Cover up an assault.
Online sex trafficking.
Seizing or destroying a victim’s or witnesses’ devices that may have evidence.
Misusing weapons.
Health Care & Social Services settings (health professionals, caseworkers, in-home caregivers):
Misusing access to databases to gain information or plan an attack.
Threatening to share embarrassing information or images gained while providing care.
Withholding or damaging needed equipment or services to control a victim.
Housing (landlords, housing authorities, repair people):
Misusing surveillance or security cameras to take pictures or videos of victims.
Misusing security systems, smart locks, or video doorbells to gain access to a victim.
Misusing access to databases and the Internet, including to:
Deny housing.
Violate sexual privacy.
Plan an attack.
Conflict, civil unrest, and bias motivation (people motivated by hatred of or wanting to show power over a group, paramilitaries, opportunists):
Misusing map and navigation tools to locate target-rich areas.
Misusing apps to find members of a target group.
Misusing the Internet to sexually harass or incite assault against:
Members of target groups.
Members of their own group. This may be retaliation for perceived sympathy for a disfavored group.
Misusing apps to plan group sexual assaults.
Recording assaults for propaganda purposes.
Privacy Concerns
Survivors may be worried about your privacy after an assault. This is common for survivors of sexual violence. It can be especially true if a survivor:
Wants to participate in public life. This could be activism, running for office, being well-known in a professional field, or something else.
Wants to pursue legal options in response to the assault.
If a case is in the public eye, this can lead to distressing comments on news stories and social media. Privacy can be compromised by online access to police and court records or sex offender registries. A survivor may also worry about being targeted for online harassment, doxing, or other retaliation. Most of our survivor resources are aimed at survivors of domestic violence. However, some of them may be useful for you. Those in the “Personal Information & Data Privacy” section and “Technology and Sexual Assault” section may be especially relevant for many survivors.
Technology and Root Causes
Online spaces amplify existing attitudes and beliefs. They can support a culture that enables or supports sexual violence. This could be through memes, “revenge porn” sites, etc. At the same time, activists have used online spaces to counter this culture. Online advocacy includes awareness, events, bystander intervention, and more.
Even those who work with survivors may victim-blame around tech. Survivors have a right to technology. This includes mobile devices, social media, dating or gaming apps, and other tools. Tech can be essential for access to school, jobs, benefits, civic engagement, community, fun, and healing.
Research shows that perpetrators exploit power imbalances in our society. These can be:
Demographic factors (age, race, language, religion).
Disabilities.
Legal status (immigration, criminal record, dependency).
Leadership roles in work, school, and communities.
Power imbalances also mean that some people have more access to tech than others. These people may also be more confident with tech. They may be people that society says will be good with tech. But there is not one sole type of person who can use tech. You have the ability to learn to use it.
Further Resources
Here are some organizations and tools that focus on types of tech-facilitated sexual violence:
Cyber Civil Rights Initiative is an organization that fights nonconsensual posting of sexual or intimate images. These could be real or synthetic (fake) images.
StopNCII is a tool to prevent and remove nonconsensual posts of sexual or intimate images. The survivor needs to have copies of the images to use it. StopNCII is for adults. Children under 18 can use TakeItDown.
WomensLaw is one of our sister teams. They focus on legal information and options. They have information about different types of tech-facilitated abuse. This includes some types that involve sexual violence.
The Cyber Tipline at National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) helps children who experience tech-facilitated sexual violence. It can also help adults if the violence happened when they were children.
Victim Rights Law Center works with Massachusetts and Oregon survivors. It can help with information privacy.
OnlineSOS is aimed at journalists, but anyone can use its online resources. It has guides with steps that a survivor (or a trusted person helping the survivor) can take in response to online harassment. This includes specific resources for:
Online sexual harassment (including sexual threats).
There are also sexual violence hotlines. To call the National Sexual Assault Hotline, dial 800-656-4673. To use the webchat version of the National Sexual Assault Hotline, go to https://hotline.rainn.org/online.
