NAVIGATING SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE DIGITAL AGE

NAVIGATING SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE DIGITAL AGE

By Chelsea Lubbe

The digital age is something many of us actively participate in. It has impacted our way of communicating and interacting with each other through the ability to have close and intimate conversations without being physically together. Our digital personas often bleed into our real-life identities because of how immersive social media can become. While the ability to connect with other people is at our fingertips, this convenience has its downsides. One of which is the increased popularity of online sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment is prevalent in our society. According to the Pew Research Center, 33 percent of women under the age of 35 say they have been sexually harassed online. While sexual harassment has always been an issue, social media has opened the doors to a new way in which individuals can experience it. Because of the large number of people participating in this cyberspace world, online sexual harassment can be harder to maneuver than in person sexual harassment.

RAINN, America’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, defines online harassment as any type of communication and use of information to cause another person distress or harm.

This can often be sexually harassing in nature when it includes explicit messages, non-consensual sharing of sexual images, and sexist and discriminatory comments. Any type of unsolicited behavior that could make an individual feel intimidated, humiliated, or make them feel exploited can be considered sexual harassment.

Through the years, online sexual harassment has grown and changed with the internet.

“It can change every day. It was a lot different before Twitter and Instagram - it was Myspace and it was blogs,” said Ray Epstein, a junior double majoring in english and communication social influence, president of Student Activists Against Sexual Assault, SASSA, at Temple University. “It’s so hard to define, it’s silent, but it can be viral, and it’s anonymous but it can be everything that it’s not.”

Social media plays a role in the lives of many individuals, with people choosing to share a version of themselves with their social media network. But the feeling of anonymity on the internet does not mean there aren’t real people behind them. That is why it is important to take online sexual harassment as seriously as its offline counterpart.

“When sexual harassment happens in the real world the lines crossed become clear, but online there’s an influx of people and dehumanizing words can be spread,” said Chelsea Sarmiento, a sophomore anthropology major.

It is manipulative for some social media users to attack and exploit others using websites or apps that should be used as an outlet for self-expression, leisure, and means of connection.

“I think it’s unfair that people abuse unsupervised spaces like the internet as their platform for harassment,” said Alyson Lokey, a sophomore advertising major. “It can almost become impossible to avoid someone online.”

Online abuse is real abuse. Because the internet is a crucial part of our everyday lives, simply avoiding it to not be harassed is unrealistic. Suggesting this to a victim of online sexual harassment could invalidate them and the damage online sexual harassment can have on someone.

Some people have taken notice of online sexual harassment’s potential to cause harm and work to create technology to fight it. One of these technologies is Castillo, an online encrypted tool that can be used to log any sexually violating content, such as direct messages. This website helps match victims of the same perpetrator so they can make informed decisions about reporting their experience. They also provide free and confidential legal counsel if two or more survivors from the same college report the same person.

“Callisto can absolutely reduce sexual assault and sexual harassment,” said Epstein. “You can use it as a tool for anything that is sexually violating.”

Living in modern times requires understanding how both the digital and physical world affects us. Unfortunately, sexual harassment is all too common in both spaces. But there are people and organizations, such as RAINN, SASSA, and Castillo, working to create better and safer spaces both offline and on.