Global Coalition Launches Challenge to Find New Ways to Promote Safety for Women and Girls Online
NEW YORK, March 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Tech innovators, victim-survivor advocates, policy makers and thinkers are invited to showcase their transformative solutions to address technology-facilitated gender-based violence on the global stage as part of the Safety Showcase: Reimagine Gender in Tech series of events that seek to inspire an industry shift to safer technology, hosted by the TFGBV Safety Showcase Coalition.
A coalition of feminist tech leaders, government representatives, the United Nations, and civil society are calling for innovative submissions of solutions that promote online safety for women and girls, and ensure their rights and freedom of expression online are protected as new technologies, such as AI, proliferate.
Gender-based violence extends to the online world, and disproportionately impacts women and girls. Recent research showed nearly 60 per cent of young women and girls have experienced online harassment. These online negative experiences frequently spill over into the offline world, negatively impacting people's quality of life, particularly those who identify as women, transgender and gender-diverse.
Tech has the potential to be a catalyst for equality. Yet, new technologies continue to reflect and entrench the structural inequalities of the offline world, which keep women, girls, and gender-diverse groups from being able to enjoy online spaces free from harassment and abuse.
Rethinking how we develop technology, with safety as a fundamental design principle, will allow for greater diversity of voices, ideas and solutions, not only across the technology spectrum, but throughout our daily lives.
The coalition is calling on everyone who shares our passion for technology and putting women's and girls' lived experiences at the heart of the design process to help us reimagine the future of technology as a place for joy. We encourage you to offer solutions that include, but are certainly not limited to:
- tech policies
- products
- features
- models and algorithms
- audit frameworks
- reporting mechanisms
- mitigative strategies.
We need to be bold. We need ideas that push beyond legal compliance to meaningfully centre women's safety and support the fulfillment of their right to have an online space free of violence.
Solutions will be assessed using Feminist Principles of the Internet, Safety by Design Principles, Guidance on the Safe and Ethical Use of Technology to Address Gender-based Violence and Harmful Practices, Orbits, and The Feminist Tech Principles.
Ten innovators will be invited to present their solutions as part of the Safety Showcase, a series of four global events over the next year, taking place at trust and safety, digital rights, and gender-based violence convenings.
More information on deadlines, how to submit your solutions, and details on the series of events will be posted on our website soon. For now, it's time to do your homework and review the guiding principles above, co-create, safely test and iterate, explore, and get your creative juices flowing!
The eSafety Commissioner, Australia's online safety regulator, is contributing to this initiative, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Numun Fund and the UK Foreign Commonwealth Development Office.
Contact: Neil Parekh
[email protected]
+1 206.370.0058
SOURCE TFGBV Safety Showcase Coalition
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