Three things you should do to avoid harassment online
Women are more likely to report being sexually harassed online or stalked.
Online harassment can happen in many forms, for example offensive name-calling, purposeful embarrassment, stalking, physical threats or sexual harassment. Online harassment happens more often than you probably think and the number is increasing!
A bit more information and statistics
Online harassment happens most often in the online life of young adults. Almost two thirds of young adults have experienced some form of online harassment – which makes this the only age group where the majority has had these experiences.
Gender also plays a role in what kind of harassment is experienced. Women are more likely to report being sexually harassed online or stalked. Mostly young women are likely to have experienced sexual harassment online, as one third of women under 33 years old have experiences of sexual harrassment online. Up to 61% of the women say that sexual harassment is a major problem.
What you can do?
Online harassment seems to be a big thing. But there are several simple things you can do to protect yourself from possible attacks:
- Avoid making your pictures public for all users on social media. Studies show that having a profile that is fully available to everyone increases chances of online harassment.
- Don’t disclose information about your school, phone number or other contact information. You become more vulnerable if people know how to reach you.
- Avoid flirting with unknown people in private chat rooms, especially if you are a girl. Girls become victims of online harassment especially often, so make sure that you know who you actually chat with.