Africa-Press – Cape verde. The president of the Cape Verdean Institute for Gender Equality and Equity (ICIEG) revealed today that, since 2021 to date, 31 cases of attacks on privacy have been reported, 8 cases of blackmail, 3 cases of recordings, photographs and illicit films, and 16 revenge pornography, totaling 58 cases of digital violence.
Marisa Carvalho, who spoke during the “Personal Data Protection and Digital Gender Violence”, highlighted that this form of violence particularly affects women and is occurring at an increasingly earlier age, with a growing number of cases among young people.
“From 2021 to this point, through the Judiciary Police, 31 cases of attacks on private life, 8 cases of blackmail, 3 cases of illicit recordings, photographs and films and 16 cases of revenge pornography have been reported. A total of 58 cases of digital violence that particularly affects women and at an increasingly younger age.”
“The various requests that ICEG has received from secondary and basic schools in the country show us a reality that is increasingly present among young people, which affects them in a specific way and which is often hidden behind cowardly anonymity. virtual”, he said.
The president of ICIEG lamented the real consequences of these virtual crimes, such as self-mutilation, severe depression in young people aged 12 to 13 and cases of attempted and completed suicide.
Such consequences were observed on several islands, within national schools and in classes attended by children and adolescents.
To address this urgency, ICIEG established a partnership with the National Data Protection Commission in 2023 and has carried out joint activities in secondary schools to raise awareness about the phenomenon of ‘cyberbullying’.
Carvalho highlighted the false sense of impunity generated by the ease of anonymity and the lack of visible consequences in the digital world, which has led to an increase in virtual crimes.
As he highlighted, the lack of complaints is one of the main challenges faced.
This year, he continued, being an election year, an increase in virtual attacks against women is expected, especially those who wish to hold public office.
“This year, the election year, we already know that virtual attacks against men will increase, but specifically against women, in particular those who wish to hold public office. It will be a year where they will be put to the test, questioned and evaluated for everything except their political potential and their contribution to society. But it will also be a year where they will be attacked, humiliated, assaulted, often by other women, under the cover of invisibility of the virtual world,” she said.
The president of ICIEG concluded by appealing to the need to combat this practice not only with awareness-raising actions, but also through complaints, highlighting that silence cannot be combined with violence.
He also reinforced that sharing fake news, images and videos without authorization are crimes punishable by law, and urged everyone to adopt a zero tolerance stance against all forms of violence.
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