Let’s end digital violence against women and girls

By Charlotte Stemmer, Head of the UN Liaison Office for Plan International in Geneva, Switzerland, and Sylvia Poll, Senior Gender and Youth Advisor to the ITU Secretary-General

Digital spaces hold enormous promise. For girls and young women, the Internet can open doors to education, mentorship, advocacy, and global social and economic interaction. Yet for too many, those same spaces remain unsafe.

Online harassment, abuse, and exclusion prevent girls from fully participating, expressing themselves freely, and realizing their potential.

United Nations (UN) agencies, along with organizations like Plan International, recognize violence against women and girls as not just a technology problem. Rather, it is an equality issue reflecting deeper societal disparities.

Along with new tools and policies, resolving this issue demands a shared commitment to inclusion, safety, and gender equality across all aspects of digital life.

Barriers and inequalities

The scale of the challenge is striking. Research by Plan International involving over 14,000 girls across 31 countries found that 58 per cent of them had experienced online harassment, and nearly half of girl activists (47 per cent) faced abuse for speaking up about gender equality or feminist issues. Find the full results in the State of the World’s Girls (2020) report.

Many girls still face barriers to connectivity, device ownership, and digital literacy, deepening the inequality gap and limiting their opportunities to learn, lead, and thrive. Based on ITU Facts and Figures 2025, there is a lack of progress in closing the gender gap. Globally, 77 per cent of men use the Internet, compared with 71 per cent of women. Although the number of female and male Internet users has increased by nearly 45 per cent since 2019, about 280 million more men than women use the Internet worldwide in 2025.

Every year, millions of women and girls are affected by digital abuse and technology-facilitated violence. Global studies estimate that between 16 per cent and 58 per cent of women have experienced this type of violence.

These experiences reflect wider systemic inequalities. Girls who face discrimination offline due to gender, ethnicity, disability, or income status are often at greater risk of online abuse. Studies show how unsafe digital spaces silence underrepresented voices and restrict civic participation.

Girls speaking up

Fortunately, girls are also leading change. Around the world, young women are using digital tools to challenge abuse, amplify their voices, and create safer online communities.

As one 17-year-old girl in the Philippines shared in the 2020 report: “We are judged online for simply being girls. But when we speak up together, we can make the Internet safer for everyone.”

A new assessment led by girls and young women of online sexual exploitation, abuse, and technology-facilitated gender-based violence, conducted across seven countries in Africa, reinforces this message. It shows that young women, along with being affected by technology-facilitated gender-based violence, are also experts in identifying risks and driving solutions.

Their recommendations, including survivor-centred reporting systems, inclusive design, and co-created policy initiatives, demonstrate that meaningful participation is essential for sustainable change.

Young women shaping the digital future

ITU, dedicated to technology standards and coordination since the time of the telegraph, marked its recent 160th anniversary with an initiative to recognize and support young women driving digital development and transformation worldwide.

The ITU160 Gender Champions initiative enabled 10 young leaders to share their work, engage with global policy-makers and industry leaders, and help shape the future of digital connectivity for the good of everyone.

Malkia John, one of the young women selected to speak at key ITU conferences in Geneva, Switzerland, is a Kenyan engineer and feminist tech advocate whose work focuses on using artificial intelligence (AI), data science, and digital tools to strengthen response systems addressing gender-based violence. As founder of Sauti Salama, she has supported over 200 survivors with access to legal aid and mental health care, while training over 500 women and girls in digital security.

What needs to happen

Ending online violence against women and girls will take collective action.

• Governments are urged to strengthen and enforce laws against technology-facilitated gender-based violence.

• Technology companies are asked to embed safety, privacy, and accountability into their design and moderation systems.
• Educators and civil society are advised to foster digital literacy and empower girls to navigate and shape online spaces confidently.
• Donors are invited to invest in women’s organizations as well as movements working to end violence against women and digital rights advocates.
• Individuals are encouraged to speak out, support survivors, and challenge harmful online norms.

When girls and young women can connect safely, they can contribute. And when they contribute as leaders and decision-makers, the whole world moves forward.

By placing the voices and experiences of girls and women at the centre of digital innovation, we can transform technology from a source of risk into a driver of equality, unlocking a digital future that truly works for all.

ITU and Plan International support the UNITE campaign to stop digital abuse.

From 25 November to 10 December 2025, UN Women and partners encourage everyone to join in 16 Days of Activism to end digital violence against all women and girls.

#NoExcuse for online abuse