Blessing Taiwo
In a deliberate move to protect girls and women in the digital space, a women’s rights organisation, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) has called on the government to enact policies to curb the growing online violence against females.
Founder of WARDC, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi said a recent data drawn from Nigeria and Kenya shows that a large population of women are affected by technology-facilitated violence, hence the need for awareness and advocacy.
Dr Akiyode-Afolabi spoke on Thursday, during a digital security training for adolescent girls, community young women and women with disabilities on responding to technology-facilitated violence against women (TFVAW) held at WARDC office, Lagos.
The training project organised by WARDC is supported by European union in collaboration with the United Nations Trust Fund and United Nations Women. The programme is taking place across Africa as one of WARDC Africa’s pioneer projects to bring women together as a feminist movement.
“We plan to train 500 girls in Nigeria and Kenya, that is 1000. Our analysis is that in a year, the 1000 women should be able to reach out to 9 more women each which makes it 10,000 women who have knowledge of technology-facilitated violence against women. With this project and other feminist movements, more women will have an understanding of online violence and not be afraid to explore technology.
“We don’t want to start too late on the awareness of the online violence like that of the domestic violence. At a point, it should be added to the educational curriculum. Schools are now having their classes and several trainings are now going on online. Online violence by words of mouth, chats and texts should be avoided. We are expecting some policies that will deal with these online violence against women,” the women’s rights activist said.
She, however, urged girls and women to be responsible and careful not to send their nude pictures online as it can be used for blackmail, adding that this has made several victims consider suicide or withdraw from the digital space.
One of the facilitators at the training, Olamilekan Lawal, CEO of COAPPT Solutions, said girls and women ought to be aware and protected online as sexual harassers are changing their methods.
“Even when parents are able to restrict their movement to the house, while at home, the girls get molested in the digital space.
“The same way we are protecting our girls physically, we should also protect them virtually,” he said.
Lawal advised young women to be mindful of what they share on social media, contents they engage with, links they click on, groups they join, the people they follow and become friends with online.
“We are in a world whereby our data is the new oil and gold that can be used for different purposes. People now buy information about others. You shouldn’t share too much about yourself. You need to be careful and intentional about what you share online.
“Girls should also report anyone sending inappropriate messages to them online early, block such persons and speak to somebody about it. They need to protect themselves online with strong and secure passwords, have their two-factor authentication on,” he counseled.
In his message to parents, the tech expert encouraged them to familiarise themselves with the changing world of technology and close the digital gap to protect their children from online predators.
“Parents need to realise that the world is changing and there’s nothing they can do about this. They should be aware of these online platforms and take steps to protect their children on digital space.
“Close the digital gap between you and your children. You should be their friends on social media and follow them online, then you will understand their contents and online personality,” Lawal urged.
