Sexual Assault and Intimate Violence: Issues and Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

Technology-facilitated sexual violence is a modern form of an old behavior in which strangers send unsolicited sexual images and comments to another person online or through smartphones. This may include unsolicited text messages, pornographic images, images of the sender’s genitalia, sexually degrading comments on social media posts, cyberstalking, and image-based abuse. Prior research has shown that such actions are typically unwelcome and cause negative emotional reactions and self-monitoring. Such actions are ususally performed out of a misdirected attempt at flirtation, with a subset of senders acting out of aggression and abuse. The present research seeks to expand our knowledge of this behaviour, including the misogyny underlying such actions when committed by men toward women. This may include research identifying sender motivations, emotional and behavioral effects on women, and how such harassment perpetuates existing dynamics of power and privilege. Relevant research may look at the public harassment and derogation of women who are professional, accomplished, feminist, or famous. It may also look at the harassment of women who enter so-called “men’s spaces” or spaces that centre men and men’s experiences, such as online gaming, sports centres, reddit threads, incel forums, or right-wing political spaces. This may also include the sexualization and objectification of women based on their other social identities (e.g., race, religion, sexual orientation), fetishizing or seeking to exploit these women and reducing them to gender and sexual objects for male satisfaction.

Dr. Caroline Erentzen
Dr. Alisha Salerno
Guest Editors

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• stranger sexual harassment
• technology-facilitated sexual violence
• cyber harassment
• online misogyny
• dick pics
• gender-based abuse
• continuum of sexual violence

Title: From LOL to OMG: First Experiences of Online Stranger Harassment
Authors: Alisha C.; Salerno Ferraro1; Caroline Erentzen2; Regina A. Schuller1
Affiliation: Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto ON M3J 1P3, Canada Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University , Toronto M5B 2K3, Canada
Abstract: The present research explored women’s first experiences with online stranger sexual harassment, including how early these experiences begin, where they are happening, and the nature of these experiences. A large sample of young women recounted the first time they experienced online sexual harassment perpetrated by a male stranger. Qualitative analyses were then conducted on the responses to determine the age of the first encounter, the location where it occurred, as well as the content/nature of these experiences. Most participants reported early and regular experiences with unwanted sexual communication from men who were strangers. Most respondents were teenagers at the time of their first experience, and more than 10% were under the age of 12. Thematic analyses of the responses revealed several common themes regarding the nature of these first experiences. The perpetrator was often an older man, and participants were often sent penis-related graphic content (e.g., videos of masturbation, “dick pics”). This was uniformly experienced in an aversive way that often created discomfort around sexual development. With the increasing prevalence of digital spaces as primary arenas for social interaction, understanding the initial encounters women have with online stranger harassment is crucial for crafting effective intervention strategies and fostering safer virtual environments.