Hanoi, 18 October 2023: More than 400 students of the FPT University Hanoi gathered for the first time to discuss how Gen-Z can prevent, respond to and protect themselves from technology-facilitated gender-based violence.

The FPT University Hanoi organised a dialogue with its students in Hanoi today with support from the Gender Equality Department, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund in Viet Nam. The conversation aimed to raise awareness among students of the threat of digital violence and how it creates enduring feelings of fear, anxiety, humiliation and sense of powerlessness for those subject to online abuse.

Also in attendance were the Vice Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha; the UNFPA Representative in Viet Nam, Mr Matt Jackson; and the Vice Director of the FPT University Hanoi.

Digitalisation is driving structural change in how we communicate, work, learn, produce and consume. Technological innovation and digitalisation are opening a window of opportunities for sustainable development, at a time when many aspects of human life are being radically transformed. Technology has the potential to foster economic growth; and to expand access to education, information, and knowledge.

However, technology and online spaces are increasingly being misused to facilitate hate and violence against women and girls. It is designed to demean, control and ultimately silence women and girls. Globally, 85% of women report witnessing online violence, and nearly 40% have experienced it personally.

In her opening remarks, Vice Minister Nguyen Thi Ha confirmed that the Government of Viet Nam is determined to end gender-based violence against women and girls as well as young people be it in the real or virtual world.

Vice Minister Nguyen Thi Ha stressed: “The dialogue today aims to provide the students with updated and comprehensive information and knowledge about various forms of violence online as well as necessary skills to protect, detect and prevent violence when you are working online. I also urge all training and education institutes to integrate in its curriculum the knowledge and information about domestic violence and gender-based violence and other harmful practices both online and offline”.

Meanwhile, UNFPA Representative in Viet Nam Matt Jackson said that technology and online platforms should be serve as tools for accelerating gender equality and the empowerment of women.

Mr. Matt Jackson added: “Addressing technology–facilitated gender-based violence, as a growing area of critical concern, is no longer negotiable. Ensuring that everyone can freely participate online, without fear of violence or abuse is vital. Digital violence is violence. All spaces, whether virtual or real world, should be free from violence against women and girls. Together, we can claim our bodyright to bring an end to online abuse.”

The UNFPA Representative in Viet Nam called on all the students to join UNFPA’s #bodyright campaign, to raise their voices and push digital companies, social platforms, content-sharing sites and policymakers to take virtual violence and online abuse overall, as seriously as they do copyright infringements.

#bodyright is the new copyright for human body, initiated by UNFPA, calling for joint efforts to drive real change and online protections for every girl, woman and young person, everywhere.

For further information, please contact:

Ms. Dinh Thu Huong | UNFPA Communications | Email:  dhuong@unfpa.org | Tel: 0913301539

Note to editors:

• According to a 2023 report from the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), which interviewed more than 18,000 people globally:
  • Nearly 60 per cent of all people online have experienced some form of online harm. Almost 25 per cent of them are targeted because of their gender identity.
  • Thirty percent of respondents who experienced tech-facilitated violence and identified as transgender or gender-diverse reported severe impacts to their mental health including their desire to live.
  • Almost 30 per cent of women reported negative impacts to their mental health and 23 per cent felt that they could no longer engage freely online after experiencing TFV.
• Globally, an estimated 736 million women — almost one in three — have been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both, at least once in their life.
• A global study by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that nearly 40 per cent of women have had personal experiences of online violence, and 85 per cent of women who spend time online have witnessed digital violence against other women.

The 2020 State of the World’s Girls, which was conducted by Plan International in 31 countries with over 14,000 girls and young women showed that 58% of girls surveyed have been harassed and abused online, and 85% of them experienced multiple types of technology-facilitated gender-based violence. This figure is very much higher than the current global estimates of lifetime violence by intimate partners, which is 31%. The Report also states that one in four girls abused online feel physically unsafe.