Online Sexual Harassment: Issues & Solutions

AuthorMohamed Chawki - Yassin el Shazly
PositionLL.B, BA, LL.M, Ph.D, St. Center for Terrorism Law, St. Mary's University, Texas, USA - LL.B, LL.M, Ph.D, University of Ain-Shams, Cairo, Egypt
Pages71-86
Online Sexual Harassment
2013
71
4
Online Sexual Harassment
Issues & Solutions
by Mohamed Chawki, LL.B, BA, LL.M, Ph.D, St. Center for Terrorism Law, St. Mary’s University, Texas, USA
Yassin el Shazly, LL.B, LL.M, Ph.D, University of Ain-Shams, Cairo, Egypt
© 2013 Mohamed Chawki and Yassin el Shazly
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Recommended citation: Mohamed Chawki, Yassin el Shazly, Online S exual Harassment: Issues & Solutions 4 (2013) JIPITEC 2,
para 71.
Keywords: Social Networking Sites (SNS); Bullying; Sexting; Legislation; Regulation
A. Introduction
Sexual harassment is a well-known social problem that affects peo-
ple at work, school, military installations, and social gatherings. (Ba-
rak, 2005)
A worldwide phenomenon, it has been thoroughly investigated in re-
cent decades in terms of prevalence, correlates, individual and or-
ganiational outcomes, and prevention; the range of studies provides
an interdisciplinary perspective covering psychological, sociological,
medical, legal, and educational aspe1cts of the phenomenon. (Ibid)
1
Although men face harassment, women are the most
likely victims.2 In many environments on the Inter-
   
their cyberspace lifestyle that they want to spend
more and more time there, sometimes to the neg-
lect of their in-person life (Suler, 1999). They may
-
grossed. They can’t accurately verbalize an explana-
tion for their ‘addiction’. The humorous substitution
of words in the Palace Spa suggests that it is an unna-
meable ‘thing’ – a compelling, unnameable, hidden
force. It’s not the chat room or the newsgroup or the
e-mail that is eating one’s life, but the internal, un-
conscious dynamic it has ignited (Ibid). Indeed, the
Internet has two faces, positive and negative (Barak
and King, 2000). Its positive aspect is that it enables
the enrichment and improvement of human func-
tioning in many areas, including health, education,
commerce and entertainment. On its negative side,
the Internet may provide a threatening environment
and expose individuals to great risks (Ibid).
2 In the context of women using the Internet, Mora-
han-Martin (2000) noted the ‘promise and perils’ fa-
cing female Net users. Sexual harassment and of-
fence on the Internet is considered a major obstacle
to the free, legitimate, functional and joyful use of
the Net, as these acts drive away Net users as well
 -
mage to those who remain users, whether by choice
or by duty.
B. Harassment in Cyberspace
3
‘Sexual harassment is a prevalent phenomenon in
face-to-face, social environments’ (Barak, 2005). The
harassment of women in the military (Fitzgerld, Ma-
gley, Drasgow & Waldo, 1999), at work (Richman et
the most important of which is: the threat of sexual ha-
rassment. On such account, this paper aims to provide
an overview of the issues and risks pertinent to sexual
harassment and seeks to offer some solutions based on
the necessity of pursuing a tri-fold policy encompass-
ing strategic and regulatory, technical, and cultural ap-
proaches.
Abstract: This paper addresses and analyses
the growing threat of sexual harassment in cyberspace.
Digital transactions and communications have, over
the past decade, been increasingly transpiring at an in-
creasingly accelerated rate. This non-linear progres-
sion has generated a myriad of risks associated with the
utilization of information and communication technol-
ogies (ICTs) in cyberspace communications, amongst
2012
Mohamed Chawki
72
4
al., 1999) and schools (Timmerman, 2003) is receiving
increased attention from both policymakers and the
popular media. ‘Sexual harassment is not a local phe-
nomenon, but exists in all countries and cultures,
although its perceptions and judgment, and conse-
-
ture to another’ (Barak, 2005).
I. 
Harassment Behaviours
4
  
  -
our, (2) solicitation of sexual activity by promise or
rewards, (3) inappropriate and offensive, but sanc-
tion-free sexual advances, (4) coercion of sexual ac-
tivity by threat of punishment and (5) sexual crimes
and misdemeanours. Following extensive pilot work,
the suggestion was made (by Fitzgerald et al., 1995)
-
ment into three different categories: gender harass-
ment, unwanted sexual attention and sexual coer-
cion. According to this study,
[g]ender harassment involves unwelcome verbal and visual com-
ments and remarks that insult individuals because of their gender
or that use stimuli known or intended to provoke negative emotions.
These include behaviors such as posting pornographic pictures in pu-
blic or in places where they deliberately insult, telling chauvinistic
jokes, and making gender related degrading remarks. (Barak, 2005)
5 Unwanted sexual attention covers a huge range of
behaviours from being touched without permission,
causing fear or distress, sexual name calling and ha-
rassment to rape and sexual assault.3 Unwanted se-
xual attention can happen to both women and men
and between people of the same and opposite sex.4
6 Sexual coercion exists along a continuum, from for-
cible rape to nonphysical forms of pressure that
compel girls and women to engage in sex against
their will. The touchstone of coercion is that a wo-
man lacks choice and faces severe physical or social
consequences if she resists sexual advances.5
7 All three types of sexual harassment may exist off-
line or on the Internet. ‘However, because of the vir-
tual nature of cyberspace, most expressions of se-
xual harassment that prevail on the Net appear in
the form of gender harassment and unwanted sexual
attention’ (Barak, 2005).
-
tile force is not possible; however, the prevalence of verbal uses of th-
reats, rewards, intimidation or some other form of pressure can be per-
ceived as just as forceful as if it were in person. A unique feature of online
interactions is that a perpetrator may possess technical skills which al-
low hacking into the victim’s computer and/or ‘cyberstalking’ to follow
a victim from digital place to place, which is often perceived as quite th-
reatening to the victim. (Ibid)
II. Gender Harassment
8 ‘Gender harassment in cyberspace is very common.
It is portrayed in several typical forms that Internet
users encounter very often, whether communicated
in verbal or in graphical formats and through either
active or passive manners of online delivery’ (Barak,
2005). Active verbal sexual harassment mainly ap-
pears in the form of offensive sexual messages, ac-
tively initiated by a harasser toward a victim. ‘These
include gender-humiliating comments, sexual re-
marks, so-called dirty jokes, and the like’ (Ibid).
9
This type of gender harassment is usually practi-
ced in chat rooms and forums; however, it may also
appear in private online communication channels,
such as the commercial distribution through email
(a kind of spamming) of pornographic sites, sex-
shop accessories, sex-related medical matters, such
as drugs such as Viagra and operations similar to pe-
nis enlargement. (Ibid)
10 Some scholars (Biber, Doverspike, Baznik, Cober &
Ritter) investigated people’s responses to online
gender harassment in academic settings compared
with traditional face-to-face forms of harassment (Li,
2005). A survey was administered to 270 undergra-
duate students in the US. The study examined a total
of eight potential sexual harassment acts: (1) sexu-
ally explicit pictures; (2) content; (3) jokes; (4) miso-
gyny; (5) use of nicknames; (6) requests for company;
(7) requests for sexual favours; and (8) comments
about dress (Ibid). The results showed that certain
behaviour, such as requests for company, misogyny,
the use of sexist nicknames, and comments about
dress were seen as differentially harassing depen-
ding on the discourse medium (Ibid). Participants did
not hold more relaxed standards for online behavi-
our. Rather, they had similar or even more stringent
standards for online behaviour. Females perceived
online jokes as more harassing than the same be-
haviour in a face-to-face environment, while males
rated jokes as more harassing in the traditional en-
vironment (Ibid). Females tended to act rather cau-
tiously (in comparison with a face-to-face setting)
-
line. Compared with their male counterparts, they
were more stringent in their judgment of behavi-
our as harassment because they took sexually expli-
cit online pictures, jokes and requests for company
more seriously (Ibid).
11
‘Passive verbal sexual harassment on the other hand,
is less intrusive, as it does not refer to one user com-
municating messages to another. In this category,
the harasser does not target harassing messages di-
rectly to a particular person or persons but, rather,
to potential receivers’ (Barak, 2005). Nicknames and
terms or phrases clearly attached to personal details
often encompass this form of sexual harassment,

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