LIBE II

The impact of such forms of abuse is severe on individuals. Victims often suffer extreme mental distress, with some even attempting suicide. As perpetrators often tend to be  previous intimate partners, harassment received online can promt offline violence. It largely follows the same patterns as offline violence and in most cases, the cyber-harassment is a result of a physical encounter with the victim. The livelihood of victims is often at risk, with employers finding their online presence dominated by explicit imagery. Moreover, the breach of rights to the victim’s privacy, dignity and family life is a violation of the right to their personal life. Such condemnable acts also inhibit sexual expression by vilifying victims and perpetuating a victim-blaming rhetoric whereby a victim deserves such punishment as they have allowed an offence of this sort to happen to them.

Moreover, the victim profiles in these cases are severely polarised with stereotypes and biases further adding to the institutional barriers behind this issue. Members of intersectional communities like LGBTIQ community, ethnic minority and indigenous peoples are targeted more often than any other social groups, facing discrimination and hate speech. The increased importance of the role of the online environment could pose an opportunity to connect globally. Instead, it threatens these women’s political voices as they feel intimidated by online threats. At the same time, younger women are even more vulnerable and more likely to be targeted by certain types of cyber violence, such as cyberstalking and harassment. Victims are also often discouraged from reporting, since having an online presence equates to accepting the dangers that come with it. Simultaneously, most measures aiming to tackle cyber-sexual abuse approach the issue solely from a women’s perspective, with individuals of other genders still being excluded in policymaking. It is therefore important to note that victim profiles add to the complexity of the issue, and need to be considered when addressing policy changes and lawmaking.

Cyber sexual abuse does not only harm individuals, but communities as a whole. Firstly, image-based sexual abuse is a form of cultural harm. When unregulated and not widely condemned, it normalises non-consensual sexual activity, sustaining a culture in which sexual violence is less likely to be recognised, investigated or prosecuted. Ireland’s November 2020 leak raised awareness on the cultural harm of passivity towards image-based sexual abuse, highlighting and urging for legal and social preventative measures with multiple campaigns, news pieces and civil action devoted to the issue. However, with different States falling behind in enacting robust regulation, communities are often prompted to stay silent and passive. This perpetuates a lack of awareness, empathy and victim-blaming. Moreover, regulations cannot be effective without resources and without addressing the urgent need for training for authorities, as prosecution is often impossible not only due to the regressive legal definitions of sexual abuse, but also due to the lack of digital experts and resources to investigate. 

The nature of the issue makes it one difficult to regulate transnationally. With cross-border cyberspace regulation scarce and difficult to implement across all Member States. For instance Ireland, Germany, Malta and Spain have strictly criminalised the issue. As such, different servers are free to regulate their content as they want. Crimes can easily transpire in a country while the offenders are based in another. This enables the offender to hide their personal information, while it becomes harder for national authorities to take action. Additionally, websites can very easily continue to exist illegally in certain states, while users can easily acquire a VPN key that allows them to access them despite the legislation of the State they are in. The gaps in research en lack of consistent data regarding cyber sexual abuse in the EU does little to help Member States. This adds to the difficulty of legislating as there is no definition for cyber-sexual abuse and, thus setting the issue in a legal and regulatory loop.