中華心理衛生協會

Objective: Technology-facilitated gender-based violence entails use of the internet or digital tools by perpetrators to inflict violence on victims based on sex or gender discrimination. For the past 20 years, Taiwan's government has devoted many resources to the prevention and treatment of gender violence. As the profile of gender violence continues to change with the development of the internet and digital technology, the purpose of this pilot study is to identify current types of digital gender violence. Methods: We conducted qualitative in-depth interviews with 14 victims of digital gender violence about their experiences. We transcribed the interviews and applied categorical analysis to identify categories of digital gender violence. Results: We identified 8 categories: harassment, insult and attack, cyberstalking, doxing and slander, control and restriction of online posting, image-based sexual violence, cyber exclusion, and account hacking. We also found that the category of digital gender violence presented corresponds to whether or not the perpetrator has or has had an intimate relationship with the victim. Conclusions: Most of the categories of digital gender violence identified in this study are similar to those presented in the previous literature. We did find 2 categories not previously described: restriction of online posting and cyber exclusion. We also found that the categories of control and account hacking occur more frequently between people with an intimate relationship. The isolation of victims deserves further research attention.