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Better support for children affected by tech-based family violence
Children can be deeply affected by family violence.
Family violence can happen in person or via technology. A family member may misuse technology to send threatening messages to a child, or to monitor and stalk the child and their primary caregiver using hidden cameras in toys or the child’s phone GPS.
To address this, crisis centre workers in the Pacific are joining the rollout of an expanded version of the Training for Frontline Workers in the Pacific for technology-facilitated GBV (TFGBV) that contains a new child and adolescent training module. The new ‘Impacts of TFGBV on Children and Adolescents’ module has been added for domestic settings and the use of technology to perpetuate gender-based violence (GBV).
Many crisis centres are prioritizing this, given the fast-growing number of perpetrators misusing technology to cause harm for gender-based violence (GBV), including violence against women and girls.
“Online and technology-based abuse was not that common in gender-based violence (GBV) cases maybe five years ago, but now it would be rare or unheard of for a GBV perpetrator to not technology as part of their cache of abuse, control and coercion,” said Farzana Gulista, GBV Adviser for Pacific Women Lead at the Pacific Community (PWL at SPC) programme.
The TFGBV Training for Frontline Workers in the Pacific was developed from 2022-23, led by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner in collaboration with Pacific partners working to end GBV, such as the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre and Tonga Women and Children Crisis Centre. The Frontline training examines the role of technology in perpetrating family, domestic and sexual violence and provides guidance for frontline workers to recognise and respond to TFGBV.
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is the latest country to host the Frontline training, as it continues to rollout across the Pacific including in Fiji, Tonga and Solomon Islands.
It was in PNG where the new Children and Adolescent Module was piloted. As a result of positive feedback, the training for frontline staff who work with youth is now adopted as the fifth module in the Frontline training, which also has modules on understanding TFGBV, safety planning and more, and includes videos and case studies.
The Frontline training also has an emphasis on embedding TFGBV into existing GBV frameworks, legislation, training and education with Frontline workers encouraged to adapt and localise ways the training is implemented to suit their national context. TFGBV is a form of gender-based violence (GBV) - not a new form of violence – whereby technology is being used to target victim-survivors, primarily women, to exacerbate the harm caused by GBV including stalking, coercion, abuse, intimidation (source: Literature scan of tech-based family, domestic and sexual violence: https://www.esafety.gov.au/research/literature-scan-of-tech-based-family-domestic-and-sexual-violence).
“While existing training programs on online harms affecting children often focus on child sexual exploitation or cyberbullying, this module fills a critical gap by addressing GBV. Specifically, it highlights the impact of TFGBV within family and domestic violence contexts on children and adolescents,” said an eSafety spokesperson.
eSafety collaborated with Pacific Women Lead at the Pacific Community (PWL at SPC) programme to develop the Frontline training’s new child module, working with Pacific-based and international partners to develop and successfully trial the module. This included an Advisory Group providing oversight and advice throughout the training’s development. The group comprised of representatives including UNICEF Pacific, Save the Children, Child Fund, SPC’s Pacific Girl.
eSafety and the Pacific Women Lead at SPC programme have partnered to support Pacific crisis centres and partners implementing TFGBV initiatives since the September 2023 Safe and Equal Online Spaces – Pacific Cyber Safety Symposium.’ This includes delivering the new child and adolescent module, expanding the Frontline training to PNG, plus developing the region’s first TFGBV Training of Trainers (TOT) plus delivering the TOT to experienced GBV trainers, counsellors and caseworkers who are now adapting and delivering the training locally in their respective country.
For the new child and adolescent module, a key part of its development was investigating the direct and the indirect ways that children can be impacted by TFGBV within the family setting.
This is complex as there are multiple ways this can occur; children may be directly targeted or they may be indirectly affected as a witness of violence occurring within the family, typically to a mother or a female relative. Children can also be unknowingly co-opted into the abuse by the perpetrator, such as if mum and dad are living separately and the child receives an Apple iPhone gift from a parent on their return home, not realising the phone has been embedded with spyware or a location tracker – typically to track the mother who may be in a safe house or unknown location.
eSafety, as Australia's national online safety regulator, remains committed to supporting partners to address TFGBV and this includes designing the Frontline training in a way it can be owned, localised and delivered by Pacific partners for the Pacific region.
