For this year’s Pride Month, FEEL is continually working with gender inclusivity. On June 13, our FEELer Betsy Milne presented two studies she worked on, Young People’s Experiences of Technology Facilitated Gender-Based Violence During COVID-19, and “We Have to Educate Ourselves”: Prioritising Young People’s Voices and Their Recommendations for Change, in the Trans-inclusivity Seminar Series organised by Institute of Education (IOE). Her presentation particularly highlighted the findings featuring sexual and gender-diverse young people’s experiences of platform specific tech facilitated gender-based and sexual violence from two studies. In these two studies, Betsy and her colleagues take a gender inclusive approach to gender-based violence. They not only focus on violence against cisgender and heterosexual women, but looks at all forms of the enforcement of a gender binary. This blog will share key takeaways from Betsy’s talk.
Online Platforms have affordances that facilitate gender-based sexual violence. The first study, Young People’s Experiences of Technology Facilitated Gender-Based Violence During COVID-19 found that 78% of young people experienced at least one type of online harm during COVID. These harms ranged widely from experiences of body shaming to sexual violence. However, gender minorities had a heightened risk of experiencing offensive or degrading messages, comments, or jokes online about their gender identity. 88.9% had experienced at least one form of harm, and 88% were sexual minorities. The top platforms for these comments are 1- TikTok, 2- Instagram, 3- YouTube, 4- Reddit, and other social media platforms.
In addition to these direct experiences of violence, young people also witnessed a lot of harmful views and discrimination online. These kinds of comments that people are seeing feed into an attention economy, whereby the algorithms are fixated on boosting the visibility of content, whether it is discriminatory or not. For the platforms, it does not matter what the outcome is, and it ends up with a lot of polarised and hateful views that are expressed.
On the other hand, online platforms can become a key space for learning about gender diversity. The second research, “We Have to Educate Ourselves”: Prioritising Young People’s Voices and Their Recommendations for Change, found one overarching theme that there are significant gaps in education on gender identity and diversity, and inadequate support for trans and gender diverse youth in school contexts. As a result of these gaps, not only does social media fill a gap, but also in some cases, it can offer a private space to ask questions that young people may not feel comfortable talking about with teachers or even their friends, specifically gender-diverse youth. Young people described social media as inclusive, where they enjoy how social media profiles have introduced pronouns and gender identities.
However, the internet is not always positive. Young people also described witnessing widespread misinformation and having difficulties deciding what is reliable information, highlighting the complexity of the role that the internet can play in young people’s lives.
In conclusion, while the internet may have become a positive space for community and learning, we should boost efforts to reduce discrimination and misinformation on these platforms. The internet should by no means be the only space available for young people to feel safe and to learn about their bodies and feelings.
Blog author: Sitian Chen
Feminist Educational Engagement Lab 