Thank you for participating in this spot light focus, on ‘Online abuses’ survey.
We are campaigners for reform of legislation and regulation of online platforms and the abuses they enable. As campaigners with our own direct experiences, we know how current legislation fails victims and how some online abuses have yet to be made an offence despite their matching offline counterpart already being so. Some hold a place in grey areas of yet to be tried case law.
These surveys have been designed to collect data about the very under reported abuses that are initiated online. For some, the experience remains online, these platforms being a playground for abusers and predators to target large numbers of unsuspecting users and sometimes, these abusers are using these online platforms as a vehicle to gain access to those they wish to pursue offline once the target has been reached.
Online abuse can vary greatly, from an annoyance to the extremes we hear about in the press. However, one thing is clear, more and more as the years pass by, we are hearing of much larger numbers and more shocking experiences than ever before. It’s surely time for a change?
There are varying reasons that online abuse goes unreported. Some think their own experience didn’t meet expectations for police intervention. Some have reported but have been turned away by police as a non offence, (sometimes this may be true but we have many cases where the police are simply untrained in this area) so the incident goes unreported. Other times the victim is too embarrassed having been duped, whether by a fake profile claiming to be something they are not or for being coerced by fear when an ex partner threatens to post intimate images online.
We do know only a fraction of incidents are reported, so this survey aims (as an anonymous way to record your experience) to collect data to present with a report, to government as a way to highlight the failings in our current system.
The report has been researched by a group of law students at the University of Kent. They have been working hard under the watchful eye of their lecturer and mentors as an extra project to their normal curriculum. Their aim, with ours is to hopefully help shape new safety measures into our current archaic systems.
Surveys
The Surveys are in 4 Steps. Each survey will take between 3 and 5 minutes to complete. There are 10 questions in each survey. Step 1 Surveys are the only compulsory surveys to complete and give us basic insight into online abuses. Step 2 Surveys look in more detail at individual abuses and Step 3 Surveys, the experiences you may have had following these, from reporting to the police to any support services you accessed. Step 4 will give us your experience of reporting to the platforms you were subjected to the abuse on, and your opinions on regulation and verification.
You can navigate Steps from the tool bar at the top of the page or by clicking on the image for that step below.
Social Media, for the purpose of this survey, refers to all online platforms with the capacity to ‘connect’ individuals for a social reason. This can be sharing stories, interacting over politics and news, chatting in a game-room or online dating through the latest app or website. Abuse happens on all these ‘connecting’ platforms and therefore they are all included as part of this survey.
Step 1 Surveys
Step 1 Surveys (a and b) are the only compulsory surveys to complete. These will give us your demographic data and a brief look at your online usage and experiences. This gives us an insight into groups and patterns.
Step 1a (about you-demographics) will ask you to create a user name. This user name should be recorded somewhere safe, to add to the other surveys you complete (always question 1), to link your experience surveys together.
Step 1b (Social/Media Platform use and experience) will give us a basic understanding of your usage on these platforms and any abusive experience you have had.
Step 2 Surveys
Step 2 Surveys (online abuses) are your chance to tell us in more detail about your particular experience. You can choose from 5 different abuse groups. They are:
2a Adult Grooming
This can be a ‘lone’ abuse or a vehicle to other abuses. If you were groomed as a vehicle to your abuse please complete this (2a Survey) and your relevant abuse survey below.
2b Catfishing
There are many motivators for Catfishing. Please read the introduction on the survey for more information.
2c Trolling, Cyber Bullying, Cyber Stalking, Online Harassment, Doxing
This group of unfortunately common abuses varies greatly in severity. Doxing is included here as a form of cyber stalking, to harvest personal information with intent to publish without consent.
2d Sextortion and Revenge Porn
This extortion is always sexual in motive. Either used by scammers after grooming, for financial gain, or revenge and control from a known source.
2e Unsolicited Nudes and Live Streaming of sexual acts
Here we have the online version of ‘flashing in public’ one is an offence and the other is not.
Step 3 Surveys
Step 3 Surveys (reporting to the police and support services)(a and b) These surveys will expand on your experience of reporting to the police (if you chose to do so) and any support services you were advised to access or chose to access independently.
Step 4 Survey
Step 4 Survey (corporate responsibility, regulation and verification) This survey allows you to tell us about your experience of reporting your abuser or an issue, to the platform you were using and your opinion on regulation of these platforms as well as verification.
