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16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence

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Trauma and Violence Division (TVD) – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

Trauma and Violence Division (TVD) – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

by | Dec 10, 2025 | 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, Trauma and Violence Division (TVD)

Digital violence is one of the fastest-growing forms of gender-based harm — from cyberstalking and doxxing to deepfakes, image-based abuse, hate speech, data theft, misinformation and online grooming. These acts leave deep psychological, social and economic consequences, and are part of a continuum that can escalate into offline violence, including femicide.

As part of the 2025 UNiTE campaign, the PsySSA Trauma and Violence Division highlights 16 key forms of digital violence and practical steps that individuals, communities, platforms and policymakers can take to keep women and girls safe online.

Across the next 16 days, we unpack the legal, technological and socio-educational actions needed to strengthen digital rights, hold perpetrators accountable, and build online spaces rooted in dignity, equality and justice.

Explore each day’s graphic and message below to learn how digital violence operates — and what we must do to end it.

Day 1

Digital violence is committed, assisted, aggravated, or amplified using information and communication technologies or digital media. Online violence includes direct personal attacks such as trolling, privacy violations and surveillance, exploitation, trafficking, abuse, and manipulation. Digital violence is part of a continuum that escalates to femicide. Follow us from 25 November to 10 December for 16 days of activism against digital violence to find out about legal, technological, and socio-educational steps that can be taken to protect women and girls. It is time to establish clear legal definitions and categories of digital violence in national law to ensure consistent recognition and enforcement. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Day 2

Language perpetuates violence. Posting misogynistic slurs and degrading comments targeting women online normalises misogyny and silences marginalised voices. Misogynistic content on the manosphere is fuelling digital abuse and spreading disinformation and hate. When these toxic ideas go viral, they shape how entire generations see and treat women and girls. Enforce platform-level moderation policies that automatically detect and remove gender-based hate speech, combined with stronger reporting mechanisms. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Day 3

Cyberbullying is not banter – It is violence: when a child repeatedly receives abusive messages or is excluded from online groups by peers; young women face coordinated attacks through insults and threats; women journalists are censored, harassed, and abused for telling the truth; professional women’s expertise and reputations, careers and credibility are undermined; women politicians are targeted with smear campaigns and threats online. Implement mandatory digital literacy and anti-harassment training in schools, workplaces, and political institutions. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Day 4

Many gaming spaces foster misogyny, exclude women from participation, or don’t protect women from bullying. Women gamers receive sexist abuse and threats during online play. Gaming should be fun, not hostile. Women deserve safe spaces in every digital world. Require real-time moderation and reporting tools in gaming platforms, with penalties for repeat offenders. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Day 5

Personal data (incl. identity numbers) can be stolen and misused to obtain credit, loans, goods, services, or medical, disability, and other benefits. Some Apps collect children’s personal data without consent or safeguards. Promote multi-factor authentication (MFA) and regular cybersecurity awareness campaigns for all users in your organisation and your home. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Day 6

Consent matters. Sharing intimate images of a woman without her permission (e.g., “revenge porn” and sextortion) is abuse, not entertainment. It causes lasting trauma and reputational harm and exploits vulnerabilities, trapping women in cycles of silence and abuse. Ensure and enforce strict criminal laws for penalising perpetrators and rapid takedown mechanisms should be provided for victims. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Day 7

Persistently monitoring a woman’s online activity and repeatedly contacting her without consent is cyberstalking. Cyberstalking is not harmless just because it happens online: it creates fear and anxiety that follows women everywhere, often escalating offline. Strengthen protection orders and digital restraining tools to allow victims to block and report stalkers across platforms. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Day 8

Publishing private data such as a home address or phone number online (i.e., doxxing) exposes women to threats, harassment, stalking, and physical danger. Doxxing isn’t exposure – it’s violence. Women’s privacy must be protected and stronger laws against online abuse are needed. Prosecute unauthorised sharing of personal data and enforce privacy-by-design standards on platforms. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Day 9

Sending unwanted sexual content and unsolicited sexual images, explicit messages, unwanted sexual solicitation or requests via messaging apps or social media constitutes digital violence. Sexual soliciting of a child is a crime. Introduce automatic content filters (e.g., AI detection of explicit images) with opt-in consent features for receiving media. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Day 10

The distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) such as images and videos online is illegal and is considered child sexual abuse and is illegal. Require global cooperation with specialised detection technologies and immediate law enforcement escalation. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Day 11

Violent extremist organisations and criminal networks (e.g. smugglers) target children through online games or forums. Children must never be pressured into risky online challenges or harmful trends or manipulated into online scams or forced digital labour. Invest in counter-narrative campaigns and AI-driven detection of extremist propaganda to disrupt recruitment pipelines. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Day 12

Technology platforms have been weaponised for trafficking, coercion, abuse including sexual exploitation, and smuggling operations. Women and girls are groomed through social media and coerced into sharing sexual images. Enhance cross-border law enforcement collaboration and require platforms to flag suspicious recruitment/job ads. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Day 13

Girls are targeted with ads for age-inappropriate products (e.g., alcohol, gambling). They can also encounter online material promoting self-harm, suicide, or violent extremism. Enforce age-appropriate content filters and ban targeted ads for harmful products (e.g., tobacco, illegal drugs). There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Day 14

Biased social media and AI algorithms amplify and promote misogyny and misogynistic content, spreading harmful content and radicalising attitudes, ultimately driving digital violence. Technology must be built for equity, not harm. Require independent audits of algorithms to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in recommendation systems. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Day 15

AI is used to create fake explicit videos of women and spreading them online. Such explicit content disproportionately targets women, undermining their credibility, and safety. Women in politics are more likely to be targeted by deepfakes than men. Technology must empower, not exploit. Develop robust verification tools (e.g., watermarking, fact-checking partnerships) and criminalise malicious deepfake creation. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Day 16

The UN declared 2025 the Year to End Digital Violence, calling for global action against cyberstalking, deepfakes, and online harassment. Technology-enabled gender-based violence is fuelled by online anonymity, accessibility, and virality. Digital violence is often aimed at silencing women by eroding their confidence and participation in digital spaces. Technology-facilitated abuse is rapidly increasing in South Africa. Join the global movement and launch local awareness campaigns highlighting digital rights as human rights and promote safe online spaces. There is #NoExcuse for online abuse. #PsySSATVD #GBVF

Trauma and Violence Division (TVD) – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

Psychology in Public Service Division (PiPS) – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

by | Dec 8, 2025 | 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, Psychology in Public Service (PiPS)

As our lives, learning, work and relationships increasingly move online, technology-mediated violence has become one of the most urgent fronts in the fight against gender-based violence. From online harassment and stalking to image-based abuse and hate speech, digital violence threatens the safety, dignity and rights of women and girls in South Africa and across the world.

In this powerful contribution, PsySSA’s PiPS Division reflects on the 2025 UN Women theme — UNITE to End Digital Violence Against All Women and Girls — and explores how digital safety, gender equality and human rights are deeply interconnected. The piece highlights the need for stronger policy implementation, safer technology design, improved digital literacy, and coordinated, trauma-informed responses across sectors.

Read the full contribution below:

PsySSA Psychology in Public Service Division (PiPS)

16 Days Of Activism: UNITE to End digital Violence Against All Women and Girls

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence runs from 25th November to 10th December. It is a global call to action to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and children. Although the campaign is observed for 16 days, its success rests on our daily and individual actions to safeguard our society against this cycle of abuse.

The 2025 global campaign, led by UN Women under its’ UNiTE initiative, is themed “UNITE to End Digital Violence Against All Women and Girls.” In the digital sphere, online harassment, abuse, stalking, non-consensual sharing of images or personal data, hate speech and other forms of technology-facilitated violence need to be eradicated in order to advance gender equality and human rights.

Technology must become a force for equality and not harm. The campaign calls on governments, private sector platforms, civil society and individuals to act to improve policies and laws; to design safer technologies; to equip women and girls with digital literacy and safety tools; to shift social norms and to hold perpetrators and platforms accountable.

In the South African and global context, the campaign reinforces that gender-based violence is never acceptable. By extending the reach of activism into the digital sphere, the 2025 campaign acknowledges the evolving ways in which violence and harassment manifest, especially as our lives, workplaces, learning, socialising and relationships move online. Gender-based violence does not occur in isolation. It is shaped by unequal power dynamics, harmful gender norms, historical and intergenerational trauma, socio-economic inequalities and attitudes that normalise violence.

Across its 16 days, the campaign provides an opportunity to create awareness, generate policy momentum, amplify survivors’ voices, share resources, shift culture, and foster solidarity. The campaign underscores women’s and girls’ digital safety as a fundamental part of their human rights, their freedom of expression, access to economic and social life and their dignity and bodily autonomy.

Every person has a role in ending GBVF. This collective vision can only be realised when every sector plays its part: Government must strengthen policy implementation, resource frontline services and ensure accountability across the justice and security systems and health services must provide trauma-informed and compassionate care. Intersectoral collaboration between social development, education, policing, health, civil society and community leaders is essential to creating a coordinated, survivor-centred response. When institutions work together and communities remain actively engaged, South Africa takes meaningful steps toward a society grounded in safety, dignity, healing and justice for all women and children.

Resources
https://www.unwomen.org/en/get-involved/16-days-of-activism
ChatGPT used for generative AI purposes & all Instagram squares were generated by ChatGPT

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Trauma and Violence Division (TVD) – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

Sexuality and Gender Division – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

by | Dec 2, 2025 | 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, Sexuality and Gender Division (SGD)

Digital spaces have become the new frontier of misogyny — a “wild west” where women, girls and gender-diverse people face cyberstalking, image-based abuse, deepfakes, hate speech, coercive control and algorithmically amplified harassment.

The PsySSA Sexuality and Gender Division reflects on how digital violence is part of a broader continuum of patriarchy, discrimination and gender-power dynamics. Drawing on global insights and African realities, this contribution examines how technology – far from neutral – can reinforce and accelerate inequality, while exposing already-marginalised groups to intensified harm.

The piece also outlines key actions we must take as psychologists, educators, policymakers and communities to address this evolving landscape of violence.

Read the full contribution to explore how digital violence is reshaping gendered harm — and what we must do to resist it.

PsySSA Sexuality and Gender Division

Digital violence against women and girls, a new frontier in the “wild west” of misogyny.

When Laura Bates launched the “Everyday Sexism” Project in 2012, she started a quiet revolution.

She brought to our attention the link between casual, everyday forms of gender-based harassment (often experienced by women and girls in the streets of daily life) and the more serious manifestations of sexual and gender-based violence and femicide. Ideologically, they have the same origins, deeply rooted in longstanding gender-power structures: patriarchal control, objectification of women, and misogynistic violence.

Since then we have seen the rise of digital violence against women and girls (and sexual and gender minorities), still part of the same continuum of power-inflected animosity towards anyone and anything that disrupted heterosexual male entitlement.

This has manifested in phenomena which disproportionately affect women and girls; cyberstalking; the non-consensual sharing of intimate images; hate speech and harassment online to spread misogynistic, or abusive messages; misinformation and disinformation to damage a woman’s reputation or discredit her; coercive control (using technology, such as tracking devices or smart home devices, to monitor and control a person’s behaviour); and deepfakes (using technology to manipulate images or videos to create false and harmful content).

We also know that minorities across Africa experience digital harms. Speaking at a recent Cybersecurity and Digital Rights round table, Mansah Amoah noted that LGBTQI+ youth, migrants and individuals from rural or low-income contexts face heightened exposure to targeted harassment, disinformation, surveillance and exclusion. This is enabled by anonymity and algorithmic amplification which intensify hate speech and harassment.

In her new book, The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny, Bates argues that not only does technology not automatically liberate or equalise, it has the potential to reinforce, accelerate and embed patriarchal structures and a range of inequalities in ways that are often less visible.

It does this through Artificial Intelligence (AI) which amplifies sexism and misogyny by reproducing and magnifying biased data and social norms in self-learning systems whose inner workings and long-term effects we cannot fully trace or predict.
Because these technologies are often designed, funded and controlled by a narrow demographic (generally men, white, global‐north), says Bates, they reflect their priorities and blind-spots. There is a potential “wild-west” effect: the pace of technology innovation outstrips regulation, ethical oversight, social norms and protections.

The end result is a poorly regulated online world where women and girls (and minorities) aren’t just passive beneficiaries of technology, they are active targets and subjects of new forms of abuse, harassment and exploitation, with devastating social and psychological consequences.

Fixing this is not going to be easy, in a sense the battle has almost been lost. But we can do some of the following:

  • Interrogate who designs, who profits, whose bodies are used and whose safety is assumed in relation to online technologies, platforms and tools.
  • Pay attention to structural and systemic change in technology: algorithmic oversight and virtual space regulation is more powerful than only holding individuals to account.
  • Lobby for better (or better implementation of) laws on digital harms.
  • Adopt an intersectional view. Gender’s intersection with race, class, disability and global geography matters: those already marginalised may bear the brunt of technological inequalities in the form of facial-recognition bias, deepfake targeting and surveillance.
  • Expand our frameworks of sexual violence and gender harm to include these technologically mediated forms.
  • Conduct further research and scholarship in the area of digital violence against women, children and gender diverse people, so as to inform policy.
  • And, engage early and explicitly in our work as therapists, thinkers, educators and policy makers.

 

Mr Pierre Brouard – Sexuality and Gender Division (Additional Member)

PsyCast: From the President’s Desk – Prof Jace Pillay – 2025: Episode 1

PsyCast: From the President’s Desk – Prof Jace Pillay – 2025: Episode 1

by | Nov 27, 2025 | 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, PsyCAST

From the

President’s Desk

Prof Jace Pillay

2025: Episode 1

Episode 1

by Prof. Jace Pillay | From the President's Desk

In his first episode as PsySSA President, Prof Jace Pillay opens the 2025 From the President’s Desk series with a powerful reflection on the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children. Prof Pillay speaks to the widespread psychological impact of gender-based violence, the urgent need for systemic change, and the essential role of psychology in advancing safety, healing and justice in South Africa.

Tune in to hear his vision, insights and call to action as we begin this year’s campaign and continue the work toward a society free from violence.

Trauma and Violence Division (TVD) – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

Decolonising Psychology Division – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

by | Nov 26, 2025 | 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, Decolonising Psychology (DP)

PsySSA Decolonising Division (DPD)

She sat on the clinic chair with her shoulders folded inward, as if trying to shrink from the world that had suddenly become too loud, too cruel, too invasive. “I didn’t think it would follow me home,” she whispered. “But it’s on Facebook… on TikTok… even my little cousin saw it.”

She is nineteen. Her story is one I have heard too many times in different variations the trusting conversation, the shared photo, the quiet belief that intimacy will remain intimate. But in a matter of hours, her private world became public property. Her images were stolen, edited, mocked, and circulated by strangers who would never know her name yet felt entitled to her body, her dignity, and her pain.

There were no bruises to show the nurses. There was no fracture in the X-ray machine. But her world had collapsed. Her mother said she barely left her room. She said she barely slept. She said she no longer recognised her daughter’s voice.

This is the new face of violence in South Africa: silent, borderless, and devastating.

Our country has long been haunted by the shadow of gender-based violence. Statistics South Africa (2024) confirms that one in three women will experience physical or sexual violence, a number that reflects only those who managed to speak. But the terrain has shifted. Violence now slips into digital spaces, where the assault is repeated every time someone views, shares, downloads, or laughs. In this new frontier, harm does not end when the perpetrator walks away; it lingers, replayed endlessly in the survivor’s mind.

Amnesty International (2023) notes that nearly 40% of South African women have experienced online harassment. Behind that number are real lives: the Grade 12 learner bullied by classmates after her private messages were leaked; the young professional whose career stalled when intimate images were weaponised against her; the village girl whose family shamed her instead of supporting her. Digital violence strips away safety, identity, and belonging and the psychological wounds are often deeper than what we see in therapy rooms.

As psychologists, we need to recognise that digital violence is not about technology alone. It is born from old patterns of power, gendered, cultural, and historical that have simply moved into modern spaces. A decolonial perspective reminds us that Black women, especially, carry layered vulnerabilities. Their bodies have long been sites of exploitation and scrutiny, and the digital world merely amplifies those inherited injustices.

Responding to this requires more than therapy. It requires compassion, community, and the courage to confront the systems that enable this harm. It demands that we listen without judgment, validate without hesitation, and support without condition.
To every woman and girl who has endured this unseen assault: your pain is real. Your fear is understood. Your story matters.

And to all of us, families, educators, colleagues, partners may these days urge us not into slogans, but into empathy. We urge you to stand firm for dignity, for justice, and for a digital world where freedom does not come at the cost of one’s humanity.
Let us create homes, schools, workplaces, and digital spaces where a woman’s dignity is not negotiable, where her voice is safe, and where her existence does not come with a cost.

Because violence may evolve, but so must our humanity.

Trauma and Violence Division (TVD) – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

PsySSA Stands in Solidarity with 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

by | Nov 25, 2025 | 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence

PsySSA Stands in Solidarity with 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

Today marks the start of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (25 November – 10 December).

This year, we open the campaign with the global call to End Digital Violence Against All Women and Girls — a reminder that violence does not only occur in physical spaces. Online harassment, cyberstalking, non-consensual sharing of images, digital threats, misinformation and targeted abuse cause real psychological harm, deepen systemic inequalities, and silence the voices of women, girls and LGBTQIA+ people.

In South Africa, where gender-based violence and femicide remain widespread, the digital world has become an extension of these patterns of harm. Online violence reinforces stigma, retraumatises survivors, and limits participation in social, academic and economic life — especially for young women and marginalised communities. Ending digital violence is therefore an essential part of building a safer, more just society both offline and online.

Just days ago, the Women’s Shutdown on 21 November highlighted the national urgency of confronting all forms of GBV. That collective action reminded us that the fight against violence — whether physical, structural or digital — requires solidarity, accountability and sustained commitment.

As the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA), we recognise the deep psychological impacts of digital violence and the ways it intersects with trauma, identity, power and social exclusion. Our discipline plays a crucial role in supporting survivors, promoting safe digital environments, advocating for rights-based policies, and helping communities build resilience and digital literacy. We remain committed to advancing ethical, trauma-informed practice that places human dignity at the centre.

Over the next 16 days, PsySSA will share daily contributions from our Divisions — offering insights, tools and reflections that support the national and global call to end gender-based violence in all its forms.

Online and offline, every person deserves safety, respect and the freedom to speak without fear.
The work continues — today, and every day.