Visnja Ljubicic, Ombudswoman for Gender Equality, on Tuesday presented a project aimed at raising awareness about gender-based cyber violence against children, warning that cyberbullying has been growing exponentially over the last three years.

Cyberbullying can take many forms, from stalking and non-consensual sharing of private and intimate images or personal information, to sexual cyberbullying.

Online sexual abuse and exploitation of children is growing exponentially in Europe. Although Croatia has better statistics, everything that is a European trend sooner or later becomes a trend in Croatia as well, said a State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior (MUP), Irena Petrijevcanin-Vuksanovic.

The problem has been seriously increasing in the last three years, it is very complex and requires cooperation of the science community, ombudsmen, civil society, the police, the judiciary and all interested parties, including teleoperators and content distributors, she stressed.

“We don’t have real statistics on how we are doing with cyber violence, we can only talk about partial cases and field knowledge,” said Ombudswoman Ljubicic.

Victims of cyber violence experience psychological and physical devastation, embarrassment in the work and family environment and in the wider area, she said, stressing that gender-based violence from real life spills over to the Internet.

It is important to punish revenge porn

As an example, she cited the Facebook page “Vinkovacke ku*ve” (Vinkovci wh*res), where girls were publicly shamed by publishing their pictures or names – which was sanctioned in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior and the State Attorney’s Office.

Ombudswoman Ljubicic expects that the punishment of the so-called revenge pornography, which Croatia introduced into its legislation a year and a half ago, will not remain just a dead letter on paper.

The project will last three years, and its goal is to create a safer online environment by raising awareness at the institutional and social level, as well as improving the legislative and legal framework for the regulation of cyber violence in Croatia, Spain and Portugal.

Along with the ombudsman for gender equality, Portuguese and Spanish organisations for gender equality and the protection of women’s rights participate in the project.