UN Women: 44% of Women and Girls Worldwide Lack Legal Protection Against Digital Violence

• According to UN Women’s 2024 analysis, nearly 44% of the world’s women and girls remain without any form of legal protection from digital violence.
• The organisation warns that online abuse directed at women is increasing at a rapid and alarming rate, driven by the growing influence of artificial intelligence, online anonymity, and gaps in national legal frameworks.

Digital Abuse Against Women Is Rising Globally

• UN Women highlights that Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women and Girls (TFVAWG) shows prevalence levels ranging from 16% to 58% across different regions.
• Misinformation and defamation are the most widespread forms of digital attacks, making up 67% of all online violence faced by women.
• The impact on media professionals is even more severe—73% of women journalists report having experienced some form of online harassment or abuse.

Digital violence, as defined by UN Women, includes harmful acts that are created, amplified, or disseminated through digital or AI-driven technologies. These acts may inflict:

• Physical harm
• Sexual harm
• Psychological trauma
• Social damage
• Political suppression
• Economic losses

Such violence also violates women’s rights and freedoms in online spaces, worsening inequality.

How Digital Spaces Are Being Weaponized Against Women

UN Women notes that anti-rights groups are increasingly active online, using digital platforms to undermine women’s rights. These actors engage in:

• Cyberbullying and abusive messaging
• Persistent harassment, including stalking and intimidation
• Explicit threats of violence
  These tactics contribute to a climate of fear and restrict women’s ability to express themselves freely.

AI Is Accelerating Digital Violence

The organisation warns that AI is dramatically intensifying online harm against women by enabling:

AI-Driven Abuse and Misinformation

• Faster spread of targeted disinformation
• Increased image-based violations, including manipulated images
• Sharp rise in deepfake pornography, created without consent
  • 90–95% of deepfake content online is pornographic
  • Nearly 90% of these deepfakes target women

Emerging AI-Powered Harms

• AI impersonation, where attackers realistically mimic women online
• Sextortion, involving blackmail using intimate or doctored images
• Advanced doxing, with AI used to gather and expose personal information

These innovations in abuse significantly worsen psychological and emotional harm.

The Rise of the Manosphere and Online Misogyny

The expansion of the manosphere—a network of male-supremacist, anti-women spaces online—further amplifies digital violence.
UN Women notes that:

• Manosphere ideologies are infiltrating mainstream online communities
• These toxic narratives shape public perception of women
• The content normalizes discrimination and encourages hostility
• It fuels further online harassment and violence

Legal and Regulatory Frameworks Are Falling Behind

Even countries with digital safety laws are struggling to keep pace with AI-enabled abuse.
UN Women highlights that:

• The UK’s Online Safety Act faces challenges regulating fast-evolving AI tools
• Mexico’s Ley Olimpia, designed to curb image-based abuse, is also limited
• The EU’s Digital Safety Act cannot fully address emerging, sophisticated AI threats

The organisation warns that legal gaps are widening, leaving millions of women exposed to online harm.

What Needs to Happen Next? A Global Response

To address these escalating risks, UN Women recommends:

Regulating Digital Platforms and AI Tools

• Enforcing global safety and ethical standards
• Holding tech platforms accountable for online harms

Supporting Victims and Women’s Rights Groups

• Dedicated funding for survivors of digital violence
• Financial support to women’s rights organisations providing essential services

Building Prevention Systems

• Investments in digital literacy programmes for women and girls
• Training on online safety and threat awareness
• Initiatives to counter toxic, misogynistic online cultures

Using Technology for Good

UN Women points to solutions like Bodyguard.AI, a French tech company that uses AI to filter abusive content, as examples of how technology can help create safer digital environments.