A little over 48-hours ago we launched an unprecedented study into the prevalence of digital abuse in Ireland. We’ve partnered with Women’s Aid to uncover the extent, the effects and the severity of this issue. This survey was an initiative we had commenced at the end of 2015 but recent events in UCD brought the issue into focus. We launched earlier than planned with the expectation of hearing from a few hundred people. Within the first 12-hours, 1,200 people shared their stories. Within 48-hours, that number has grown to 3,000. Our survey began to unearth the issue of digital abuse between partners and has since expanded to reflect a much greater issue: the correlation between digital abuse and violence, feelings of self-loathing and dissociation with society. Simply put, this is fucking huge. 33 percent have confirmed that they have suffered digital harassment. This includes the sharing of explicit images, online bullying, threats, stalking and body shaming. We’ve since realised that the scope of our survey covers a mere fraction of the issue and that in order to paint an accurate picture of digital abuse in Ireland, we need to expand our study to cover abuse from colleagues, family and peers. Quote from survey. The issues raised thus far have been overwhelming. Women and men from all over the country have shared their experiences in depth. The persistence of the harassment and the lack of response from authority have left people with feelings of distrust, fear and shame. We want to stop it. The conversation about #UCD200 is continuing in mainstream media. Today, the Daily Mail printed an article entitled “Just Why Do Intelligent Teenage Girls Send Explicit Pictures of Themselves to Boys?” These generalised conversations do little to improve the situation and rather place the blame on the female. Quote from survey. We want to continue this conversation in a vaster sense to pressure policy makers to create legislation that will criminalise online harassment. Currently, the legislation fails to combat indirect harassment online and there is no policy for digital abuse at all. In November 2014, following a report, Robert Olson, Chief Inspector of the Garda Síochána, said “The whole issue of domestic violence needs to be thoroughly reviewed. We had about 11,000 domestic violence incidents and there were only 287 cases where somebody got arrested. That needs to be looked at very closely, we’re concerned about that.” Of the 3,000 people that responded to our survey, 62 percent did not report the abuse to the Gardaí. Quote from survey. Considering the low level of prosecution for issues of domestic abuse and rape, it’s no surprise. We want to change that. We’ve revised the study to include options to allow people to comment their views on the issue. While some sections remain specific to victims of digital abuse, we’ve increased the scope to paint a more accurate picture of abuse in Ireland. Please continue to take our survey and add your voice. Share it with peers, friends, colleagues and family.

Take the survey HERE. 

If you find this survey raises any issues for you and you would like to talk to someone, please contact the Women's Aid National Freephone Helpline 1800 341 900, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.