Perspectives from Ireland: Women’s Responses to Cyber-located Sexual Violence (CLSV)

Drawing on a quantitative multiple-choice questionnaire (N=281), this paper centers on the lived experiences of women in the Republic of Ireland (hereafter referred to as Ireland) concerning how they respond to Cyber-located Sexual Violence (CLSV). CLSV includes non-physical sexually-based behaviors/actions, such as Image-based Sexual Abuse, cyberflashing, and unsolicited comments/threats/sexual requests. The findings suggest that the women responded to CLSV in various ways, including changing offline behavior, but seldom implementing improved device/online cybersecurity hygiene. Instead, the 281 women primarily responded to CLSV by trying to ignore what happened or self-censoring online. Reflecting that CLSV is a socio-technical issue, I further discuss what those concerned with addressing CLSV in Ireland can learn from the women’s responses to CLSV, including tackling that victim-survivors feel the need to self-censor both on and offline, tackling CLSV minimization and victim-blaming attitudes, and further developing supports, education and training and Secure and Safety by Design approaches.