Esker House Women’s Refuge and Domestic Abuse Support Service, a service provided by Athlone Community Services Council, has welcomed the launch of a new digital-safety guide designed to support us to assist women experiencing technology-facilitated abuse.
‘Supporting Women: Responding to Technology-Facilitated Domestic Abuse’, has been developed by Safe Ireland in association with the National Cyber Security Awareness Taskforce as a tool for frontline domestic-abuse responders to support women and children who are victims of technology-facilitated abuse. The booklet was launched on the fringe of the Cyber Ireland National Conference and follows a two-week billboard campaign in Cork which created awareness of behavioural red-flags which signal technology-facilitated abuse.
As technologies and platforms that make lives easier are increasingly being used by more and more people every day, perpetrators of abuse are also adopting these technologies to exert coercion and control over their partners.
This experience is borne out locally in Esker House. In very many cases, domestic abuse victims are obligated to surrender their mobile phones to Gardaí as they are a rich repository of evidence of abuse. According to Deirdre Berry, manager of Esker House, there is a need for increased awareness around technology-facilitated abuse for victims and improved access to resources and training for frontline responders. We are particularly concerned at the prospect of an increase in tech abuse to control essential household spending during the current cost-of-living and energy crisis. Deirdre warns that;
“As the tech industry grows the potential of misusing technology also increases. The methods in which perpetrators can exploit technology to control and abuse their victims can to bring the levels of coercive control to dangerous levels. We are concerned as the number of women who are reporting cyber abuse increases. Cases of monitoring though using phones, social media, hacking accounts, and using hidden CCTV systems are on the rise. In addition to this, perpetrators are also telling women that they are being monitoring in order to instil further fear and control,” Ms Berry stated.
The safety-guide has been designed for specialist domestic violence professionals who work with victims of domestic abuse and coercive control as it impacts women and children. Its primary use is for frontline responders in Domestic Violence Services and Refuges but is also designed as a resource for allied professionals such as Gardaí, doctors, nurses, social workers, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals. Family, friends, neighbours and other community members may also find the guide useful if they are supporting someone at risk of technology-facilitated abuse.
Users of the booklet will also have access to a number of support-training initiatives including webinars provided by Hewlett Packard Enterprises and a series of informational videos created by security software development company Trend Micro. This will be further supplemented later in the year by access to a new online accredited course in technology-assisted abuse which is currently under development at University College Cork. The course will be available nationally and is designed specifically for frontline domestic abuse professionals, but is also expected to be of significant interest to University staff and students.
As part of Cyber Awareness campaign Esker House will be holding a number of public information events in October. Information on all events can be found on social media Facebook@EskerHouseDVservice
