From 25th November to 10th December, the global 16 Days of Activism campaign, led by UN Women, calls on organisations around the world to confront a growing and urgent challenge: digital gender-based violence.
At the University of Sheffield, we are engaging with the 2025 theme, UNiTE to End Digital Violence Against All Women & Girls, with insight and leadership from Professor Parveen Ali, Professor of Nursing & Gender-Based Violence. Her work continues to deepen our understanding of how technology is reshaping patterns of harm, control and inequality, and why this matters for universities, practitioners and communities.
Digital spaces are now woven into every aspect of academic, professional and social life. Yet for many women and girls, these spaces have also become sites of harassment, coercion and abuse. Addressing digital violence is not optional; it is central to advancing equality, protecting wellbeing and enabling full participation.
Why this matters
The global picture highlights the urgency:
- Studies indicate that between 16% and 58% of women and girls worldwide have been targeted by violence online. (UN Regional Info Centre)
- In the European Union, about 1 in 10 women report having experienced cyber-harassment since the age of 15. (UN Women)
- According to UN Women, nearly half the world’s women and girls lack legal protection from technology-facilitated abuse. (UN Women)
- Digital abuse often overlaps with offline violence: it may empower patterns of control, isolation or intimidation that were previously confined to in‐person interaction.
Forms of digital violence
Digital abuse can take many forms, including:
- Image-based abuse: Non-consensual sharing of intimate images or live-streams.
- Online harassment and stalking: Persistent unwanted contact, monitoring, or threats via apps, social media, messaging services.
- Coercive digital control: Using spyware, GPS trackers, or remote devices to monitor, intimidate or restrict someone’s online and offline life.
- Deep-fakes and non-consensual use of likeness: Technology used to fabricate sexually explicit content or defamatory material.
- Doxing and public exposure: Revealing personal data or private content online to shame, intimidate or endanger someone.
These behaviours reflect gendered power dynamics and are part of the broader continuum of violence against women and girls.
Why this work matters within our University community
Across teaching, research and professional practice, many of us navigate digital spaces every day. These environments shape how we learn, collaborate and support one another. Recognising and addressing digital risks is essential to maintaining safe, respectful and inclusive academic and clinical settings for all.
Understanding these emerging forms of harm strengthens our teaching, informs our professional practice and enhances the support we offer to those affected.
ShIVAR: Leading research and collaboration
Central to this work is ShIVAR (Sheffield Interpersonal Violence & Abuse Research Network), in which Professor Ali plays a key leadership role, alongside Dr Michaela Rogers, Senior Lecturer in Social Work and Dr Loren Parten, Research Associate . ShIVAR brings together nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, social scientists, legal experts, technologists and community partners to:
- Enables inter-disciplinary research that bridges technology, health, policy and lived experience.
- Emphasises co-production, ensuring that research is informed by survivors, practitioners and technology experts, not just academic abstraction.
- It positions our university as a thought‐leader in tackling emerging forms of violence, including the digital dimension.
ShIVAR positions Sheffield as a thought leader in tackling emerging forms of interpersonal and digital violence.
How our community can take part
During the 16 Days campaign, here are things each of us can do to make a difference:
- Educate yourself: Understand what digital abuse looks like, so that you can recognise and respond.
- Secure your own digital life: Use strong passwords, enable two-factor authentication, review privacy settings, be wary of unsolicited contact.
- Respect and consent online: Before sharing images, joining group chats or forwarding content, reflect: “Could this be harmful? Does everyone involved consent?”
- Be an active bystander: If you see misogynistic or abusive content in an online forum, group chat or social feed, don’t stay silent. Challenge it or report it.
- Use the support available: The University offers student-support services, IT helpdesks, HR/ staff-support networks. Be aware of the reporting mechanisms.
- Engage with ShIVAR: Attend a session, look out for their briefing material, join discussions, share content.
- Promote inclusive, safe culture: Use the campaign colour orange during 25th Nov - 10th Dec; share messages in your networks. Show that digital safety is everyone’s concern.
Digital abuse may occur behind screens, but its consequences are deeply human. By contributing to the UN Women 16 Days campaign, we reaffirm our commitment to creating safer environments, on campus, in clinical settings, online and in all the spaces where our community learns, works and connects.
Through research, education, support and culture change, anchored by the work of Professor Ali and ShIVAR, we can all build digital spaces defined by dignity, equality and respect.
Learn. Act. Support. Transform.