South Yorkshire Police has launched a campaign aimed at tackling online violence against women and girls. The ‘Know More’ campaign looks specifically at addressing cybercrimes such as cyberflashing and cyberstalking, as well as offering advice when it comes to reporting these offences and keeping yourself safe online.
Using artwork that features real South Yorkshire women, including South Yorkshire Police employees and students from the University of Sheffield, the campaign hopes to encourage women to recognise and come forward if they have experienced online abuse.
Violence against women and girls
South Yorkshire Police has run two previous campaigns focusing on violence against women and girls: ‘no more’ and ‘do more’, which concentrated on tackling abuse by educating people on how they can help if a woman is being harassed.
Violence against women and girls is unfortunately a widespread issue. In July 2024, the National Police Chiefs’ Council issued a call to action to tackle this epidemic, following research that revealed the sheer scale of crimes of this nature.
Research shows that abuse and harassment that takes place online is still significantly underreported in comparison with abuse in the ‘real world’ – whether at home, at work, in town or on public transport. Campaigns manager Gael Stigant said, “there is clearly woeful underreporting”.
Abuse online and via social media
Our increasing reliance on the online world and social media has opened up even more opportunities for violence against women and girls, as perpetrators can now hide behind a screen.
For example, ‘incel’ communities are groups of men online who share an extreme hostility and misogyny towards women, because of their own perceived inability to form sexual or romantic relationships. These men blame women for their ‘involuntary celibacy’. They view women as inferior and objectify them, endorse a culture of sexual and non-sexual violence against women.
These kinds of dangerous ideas are becoming more common online. Former kickboxer and self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate gained his notoriety online where he flaunted his luxury lifestyle and made his sexist attitudes known. Referring to women as “intrinsically lazy” in a YouTube video is just one of many examples. The extent of support he has received is disturbing. Tate was banned from Twitter only to be reinstated on the platform now known as X with 10.4 million followers.
Know more
It is clear that a campaign is needed more than ever. South Yorkshire Police’s lead for violence against women and girls, Detective Chief Inspector Deb Mahmood, said: “We have developed this third phase – ‘Know More’ – of our violence against women and girls’ campaign in response to a rising trend in online abuse and harassment experienced by women and girls seen across the country.”
While the force has stated that the answer to ending any kind of male violence against women is for the men committing these acts to stop, they have released advice and information to empower women and girls with choices and options about what they can do to stay safer online. This includes knowing who can access our information, knowing what can be done to protect ourselves, changing our location settings so perpetrators don’t know where we are, and knowing how to go about reporting these crimes.
Speaking on the launch of the campaign, Assistant Chief Constable Hayley Barnett said: “Not only do we see violence against women and girls in the real world, but sadly nationwide we’re also witnessing a concerning rise in the number of reports of online abuse and harassment with stalking and harassment accounting for 23% of all online offences.”
Online abuse of journalists
The force has identified that women with a necessary public online profile – such as journalists, influences and politicians – are disproportionately affected by online abuse. Three quarters of women in UK journalism having experienced threats of rape, death and harassment, according to 2023 data from Women in Journalism.
One journalist bravely came forward to share her story of online abuse, which you can watch here:
Talking about the campaign in general, Mahmood said: “We know that these crimes, such as cyberflashing, cyberstalking, sharing of false information and threats, are still heavily underreported. We’re launching this campaign to encourage everyone to know more about online abuse and report to police, so that together we can help stop online violence against women and girls.”
Hopefully this police initiative will raise awareness of the severity of this issue and take the next step towards ending violence against women and girls. Visit the force’s dedicated website to learn more: https://www.nomore-standwithus.com/
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