--- title: UN: Cyber Violence is Equivalent to Physical Violence description: 73% of women have experienced cyber violence, according to a new report canonical: https://time.com/4049106/un-cyber-violence-physical-violence/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-25T00:08:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:46:16.748Z og:title: U.N. Says Cyber Violence Is Equivalent to Physical Violence Against Women og:description: 73% of women have experienced cyber violence, according to a new report og:url: https://time.com/4049106/un-cyber-violence-physical-violence/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaff20ab6312d8cbb/6988656ecf40a860a6c3fe58/phumzile-mlambo-ngcuka.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: 2015 International Women's Day March og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.N. Says Cyber Violence Is Equivalent to Physical Violence Against Women twitter:description: 73% of women have experienced cyber violence, according to a new report twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaff20ab6312d8cbb/6988656ecf40a860a6c3fe58/phumzile-mlambo-ngcuka.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.N. 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As Executive Director of Hollaback!, Emily May uses technology and social media to confront the most pervasive sexual violence on women: street harassment_  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Sep 25, 2015 12:08 AM UTC  Assistant Secretary General Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in New York City, on March 8, 2015. Assistant Secretary General Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in New York City, on March 8, 2015. Mark Sagliocco—Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Sep 25, 2015 12:08 AM UTC Cyber violence is just as damaging to women as physical violence, according to a new U.N. report, which warns women are growing even more vulnerable to cyber violence as more and more regions gain internet access. [The report](http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2015/9/cyber-violence-report-press-release) calls itself a “wake-up call” about cyber violence as a systemic concern, especially as technology is spreading across more regions. Presented by U.N. Women and the U.N. Broadband Commission, the report estimates that 73% of women have endured cyber violence, and that women are 27 times more likely as men to be harassed online. In Europe, nine million girls have already experienced some kind of cyber violence by the time they’re 15\. Anita Sarkeesian, a gamer and activist who has long agitated for more action against cyber violence, spoke at the launch of the new report, titled “[Cyber Violence Against Women and Girls: A Worldwide Wake-Up Call.”](http://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2015/9/cyber-violence-against-women-and-girls) The U.N. defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts.” The report notes that cyber violence is an extension of that definition, that includes acts like trolling, hacking, spamming, and harassment. The report also argues that “cyber touch is recognized as equally as harmful as physical touch,” suggesting that online harassment might be just as lethal as domestic violence or sexual abuse. “Dead is dead,” says Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General of the U.N. and Executive Director of U.N. Women. “Whether you are dead because your partner shot you or beat you up, or you killed yourself because you couldn’t bear cyber-bullying, or you were exposed to many of the sites that lead people to suicide pacts— bottom line, we lose a life.” Mlambo-Ngcuka explained that the report is intended to encourage governments to take action against cyber bullying, and U.N. Women is committed to making sure those efforts are sustainable and enforceable. She said the three most important ways to combat cyber violence are sensitization to the dangers, safeguards against harassment, and sanctions against those who perpetuate internet abuse. “This is a 21st century challenge that needs us to have new ways of reacting,” she says. Still, one in five female internet users live in countries where law enforcement are extremely unlikely to respond to internet violence, and only 26% of law enforcement agencies in the 86 countries surveyed are properly prepared to address the problem. Even with her position at the U.N., Mlambo-Ngcuka says it’s been difficult to convince some people that this is a problem to take seriously. She recalled some resistance from industry leaders, particularly in the gaming space, who seemed to think that cyber violence was not their problem. “The attitude was like, ‘this sells, this is a business we make money off it, so what are you asking us, to reduce profits?'” she says. “This gentlemen said to me, ‘Lady, you are so intense, chill!’” She emphasized that cyber violence exists on a continuum with physical violence, and that both problems are byproducts of a society that is inherently unequal for women. Even if women don’t end up dead, the Under-Secretary-General said, cyber violence can still dramatically affect women’s ability to participate in the modern world. With 450 million more women expected to come online in the next three years, more and more women are relying on the internet for educational and professional resources. If the internet isn’t a safe place for them, Mlambo-Ngcuka added, they risk swearing off it altogether. “If the woman is tormented, she may then decide that ‘I don’t want to have anything to do with technology,” she said. “To be disconnected from technology in the 21st century, it’s like having your freedom disrupted: your right to work, your right to meet people, your right to learn, your freedom of speech. So if women become so intimidated and traumatized from the experiences they may have, it’s a whole world that will be lost to them for the rest of their life.” ## Transcript Oh you're [ CENSORED ] getting arrested. I'm not leaving your side. My plans are done for the night. I'm escorting you to the police station. Sexual harassment happens in all kinds of places. You ma, you ma, let me get those digits. Let me get those digits. It happens in the work place, you know. It happens in the home. It happens in schools. [ MUSIC ] And yet, in those environments. And we have a lot more protection than [ INAUDIBLE ]. On the street, it's like the Wild, Wild West. I'm Emily May, Executive Director of Holoback. Holoback is an international movement to address street harrassment or sexual harrassment that happens in a public space. [ MUSIC ] Tao Nune was riding the subway. A man sat down across from her, started to publicly masterbate. And Tao, not knowing what to do, pulled out her newfangled cellphone camera, because this is 2005, and took his picture, exclusively with the idea to give it to the police. But when she took it to the police, the police were like, sorry, there's nothing we can do. And so she put it on Flickr, the photo sharing site. From there, it went viral. Made it to the front cover of the New York Daily News. And started this city- wide conversation about public masturbation. And we thought to ourselves, why don't we create something on these newfangled things called blogs. Where everybody can do what Tal Newman did. I saw you harassing that woman back there. We wanted it to actually take the focus off of the woman and on to the harasser. We wanted to turn that lens right? Because when you're being harassed, the lens is on you. We wanted to turn back around and put it on to them. Yeah, you need to stop harassing women. You know, we collected stories and photographs and that was you know the base of the audio, it was very, very simple. And then we started to see a couple of other trends happen in technology. You can Mac your story, Tweet your story, Facebook your story and we started to see Apps. Did you know it's not safe to talk to women you don't know like that. And it's this constellation of stories that really changing the way we talk about street craftsman and changing the way we. Talk about, all forms of day to day discrimination and, and I think it's changing the way that social business happen. This is not, our way, of not being able to take a compliment. This is an issue of safety. It was October of, 2010, and, the city held it's first ever hearing on street harassment. And not just New York City's first ever hearing on street harassment. But the world, first ever hearing on street harassment. Vulgar, aggressive language toward women, especially when they are with their children, is highly inappropriate. And so, we were surrounded by a standing- room only crowd of folks. Like every single news channel. It was a huge to- do. And so the thing that they walked out of it with is an understanding, among other things, that we really needed to do more research. We have this idea that, you know, why don't we take our iPhone and our Android apps, and connect them up with the city's three one one information line? And it really is creating the first government response to street harassment. We're seeing that it's really related to population density. So the more people in a given space, the more likely you are to be harassed. For so many people, that's really surprising, because it shows us that this isn't a race thing. It's not a class thing. You know, that this an everyone. [ MUSIC ] [ INAUDIBLE ] is a non profit. We really wanted to run it like a movement. And, as a movement, we wanted to give these leaders around the world resources and a community and all the support and technical assistance that we can provide. We totally embrace the fact that street harassment might be solved differently in India than it might be in Buenos Aires or in Canada. And we just wanted to give people options and give people a Tool- kit and Menu. [ MUSIC ] Culture changes every single day. We went from a culture 60 years ago of having different water fountains for people of color and now we have a culture where we have our first black president. And, so who's saying that we can't change the culture. That has made street crossing okay. And I have a ten year agenda. A ten year plan of all the baby girls that I see rolling around on the street I wanna make sure that they grow up in world knowing that street harassment is not okay. That it's no longer a such thing that they have no clue who I am because. I'm completely irrelevant because we solved the problem. [ LAUGH ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4049106/un-cyber-violence-physical-violence/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4049106/un-cyber-violence-physical-violence/"},"headline":"U.N. 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