The 96th International Conference of the European Youth Parliament is taking place from place from 23.07.22 — 31.07.22. and gathering more than 200 young people from 30 different European countries this week in Rīga to discuss the importance of technology and digitization in modern European society.
Just like in the real European Parliament, the Committees meet to discuss specific topics.
On 26 July, “Sievietei paveicās” (“Lucky her”) Maija Krastina was invited to join the works of Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) to discuss genderbased cyber-violence. Cyberstalking, doxing, online harassment – considering the recent dramatic increase in cyberviolence with the vast majority of cybercrime victims in the EU being women, what can the EU do to combat gender- based cyber violence?
Here’s what came out from our discussion:
Legislation and regulation on cyberviolence is needed at all levels, national and European as each of it covers a different aspect.
Education: when’s the right time to start to teach kids about social media and cyberworld? Probably, as early as they get smartphones. Children and youngsters should be taught how to navigate through the cyberworld, the rules, the risks, the damage control.
Awareness-raising and guidelines needed for those who educate and work with young audiences: police, teachers, educators.
Regulate, monitor and police platforms: if platforms abuse, unplug them, for a day, week, month. Once we’ll look back at this time as insane. Given how addictive scrolling is and how much damage the violence does, social media should be regulated just like alcohol, gambling or tobacco.
It’s URGENT! The cyberviolence against women, especially in periods like elections, have reached unacceptable levels and goes unpunished. In December 2021, the European Parliament asked for a European directive to address the gender-based cyberviolence and ensure convergence at national and EU level. It will be a lengthy process. We can only imagine the horror that will happen all over the Europe prior to the European elections in 2023.
Many thanks to the organisers and the FEMM members for the very interesting debate!
Here’s a handful of interesting resources on gender-based cyberviolence.