Women employees are to be helped to combat gendered online abuse with the launch of free training sessions from eSafety.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the social media self-defence classes taught participants how to recognise, report and block abusive behaviour and activate in-built app features that filtered out negative and distressing content.
Ms Inman Grant said the training, which was previously only offered through organisations, responded to new data showing that women were significantly more likely to report adult cyber abuse than men.
She said online abuse could have profound psychological consequences, “especially when it’s part of a broader or sustained pattern of abuse that degrades who you are as a person”.
“One impact we’re seeing in our research is how it’s stifling women’s career aspirations,” Ms Inman Grant said.
“Our research shows that one in three women surveyed have been abused online in a professional context; a rate that is even higher for younger women and those who have disability or identify as LGBTIQ+,” she said.
“These experiences, which are frequently misogynistic, compel some women to close their social media accounts and avoid leadership positions for fear of further abuse and harassment.
“When their voices are silenced, it is society’s loss and when people are hounded out of public forums because of hate, vitriol and violence, democracy suffers.”
Ms Inman Grant said the training, taking place on 1 and 8 December, covered how to recognise online abuse and the impact it has on women’s working lives; how to set up social media accounts and profiles with safety in mind; and how to deal with online abuse through reporting and protecting wellbeing.
She said it also included information on the practical role eSafety had in safeguarding Australians from online harm.
Further information on eSafety’s social media self-defence classes can be accessed at this PS News link.
