Digital trust and awareness are key to ensuring safe online space for women
Owing to the upward trend of digital adoption and dependency on digital platforms in Bangladesh, online harassment or cybercrime faced by women is also on the rise
Let's have a look at two contrasting images.
First, let me have this privilege to inform the readers that Bangladesh is taking great strides in almost all the indexes that indicate a stable digital growth. Digital transformation and its adoption are underway at great speed in the country.
For those unversed in the idea of digital adoption, with a total of 179.9 million active cellular mobile connections, the number of internet users stood at 66.94 million in the beginning of 2023. The Internet penetration rate of this country is 38.9 percent.
Owing to availability of smartphones and internet, the number of social media users is also increasing at a good rate and informal estimates state that around 26 percent of the country's population, equivalent to almost 44.70 million, are actively using different social networking sites.
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This is really impressive as it points to an upward trend of digital adoption and people's increasing dependency on digital lifestyle and technological innovations.
Now flip the side and divert your attention to another reality. According to a recent study by ActionAid Bangladesh, online violence against women is on the rise and as many as 64 out of every 100 women in the country have faced some kind of harassment online in their lifetime.
The kind of harassment reported by female users include explicit comments (80.35 percent), inappropriate pictures (53.28 percent), cyberstalking (16.16 percent) and others. Interestingly, women mostly faced online harassment on different social media sites.
On one hand, people are getting increasingly dependent on social media and digital platforms for meeting their communication needs and fulfilling other purposes (like women entrepreneurship).
According to the findings of a study conducted by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and UN Women Bangladesh, 21.25 per cent of the internet users are women, insinuating that women are counting on digital platforms and social media more than ever.
This is benefitting the country and the society in many ways, given the fact that most female entrepreneurs are carrying out their businesses using different social media, which is playing an instrumental role in women empowerment.
On the other hand, women are also getting victimised and bullied online. Owing to increasing dependency on digital platforms, women are becoming easy targets for the miscreants, making online presence a bitter experience.
With reference to a survey by Bangladesh Police, rights organisation body Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) claimed that around 70 percent of the victims of cybercrime (committed in 2021) were women.
This substantiates that women are quite unsafe on different social media platforms, which is also a cause of concern as digital trust is getting compromised.
This is the point we need to address: how to make online space (digital platforms/social media) safer and protect women's privacy online so that they feel empowered and encouraged to move ahead leaving behind all those fears and harassment concerns.
To minimise this issue and make social media platforms safer for women, both the players (social media and users) have roles to perform. Already different social media platforms are taking different steps and beefing up their security measures in order to ensure a safer online space for female users.
For example, the leading global instant communication platform imo has recently brought in a few new features to solve security and privacy issues users have to face at different levels of their communication.
Three advanced security features – 'Time Machine,' 'Block Screenshot for Calls,' and 'Friend Request' – have been introduced for the users so that they can exercise more power while choosing their connections and engage in a meaningful and safer mode of communication with them without getting their privacy issues compromised.
These features will minimise a number of concerns like unsolicited screenshot during calls, manipulation of chat history and unwanted approach by strangers while also providing the safest, most seamless, and most stable user experience.
In the meantime, digital literacy and awareness are also crucial. Every user needs to know their limits on online space and learn to maximise its benefits while practising restraint.
Awareness campaigns, designed through joint collaboration between the government and other stakeholders, can go a long way in creating awareness about the significance of developing a healthy online space for all.
Enough publicity about the consequences of harassing someone online should also be made a part of the campaign so that prospective offenders get a message.
Only cutting-edge privacy features by a single platform would not be enough to solve the issue. Concerted efforts by all the stakeholders including the authorities, users, the media, non-profit organisations and, of course, the industry should be what we aim to achieve for making the internet a better place for all.
Every innovation is meant to yield positive outcomes for all. Especially in an age when we are getting more and more dependent on the digital world, it's imperative that digital space (social media to be particular) be made safer for all, including women and children.
Instead of blowing the wind out of their sails, we need to encourage women and create a congenial online ambience for them so that they can shuck off their fears and strive to be an active digital citizen.
The time is now and everyone needs to make a call in this regard.
Ishrat Hasan is a Lawyer at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.
