Alarm over rise in technology-facilitated gender-based violence

Stakeholders are raising concerns over the growing threat of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), warning that the rapid expansion of digital spaces has made women and girls more vulnerable to abuse.

Speaking at the Inaugural Symposium on Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Representative to Kenya, Anders Thomsen, said that while technology has brought immense benefits, it has also created new avenues for danger and exclusion.

“The use of the internet has exacerbated sexual and gender-based violence,” Thomsen said, adding that the lack of strong legislation, regulation, and policy guidance continues to undermine efforts to safeguard digital spaces — ultimately eroding the social fabric of society.

On her part, Deputy Director of Gender Magdaline Kipkenei, speaking on behalf of State Department for Gender and Affirmative Action Principal Secretary Anne Wang’ombe, underscored the urgent need to protect Kenya’s growing online population, noting that high digital engagement has also exposed many to online harm.

Kipkenei highlighted worrying findings from the Rapid Study on Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence in Kenya’s Higher Learning Institutions (2024), which revealed that female students are disproportionately affected by online abuse compared to their male counterparts.

According to the report, 64% of female students and 35% of students overall in higher education institutions have experienced some form of social media-based gender violence.

“For females, the most common forms of TFGBV were online defamation and non-consensual pornography, while sextortion was the least reported,” the report states.

On the other hand, online defamation and cyberbullying were most prevalent for males, while sextortion and doxing were least experienced.

The report further revealed that the most common platforms where TFGBV occurs include X (formerly Twitter), WhatsApp, Facebook, and Telegram.

It found that nearly 90% of young adults enrolled in Nairobi’s tertiary institutions have witnessed TFGBV, with 39% reporting personal experiences of such violence.

UNFPA expressed deep concern over the growing use of technology to target women and girls, warning that this form of abuse knows no boundaries.

“This violence infiltrates homes and bedrooms, workspaces and schools. It has no limits or geographical boundaries and creates a dangerous continuum of online-offline abuse that can end in the most extreme forms of violence -including femicide.”