Teens face so much online sexual harassment, term 'cyberbullying' doesn't capture true scope, expert says

Jessica Smith knows what it's like to be sexually harassed online. 

The Clarke Road Secondary School student said she has been sent unwanted explicit photos from random people on Instagram and Snapchat. 

"It was shocking because you don't expect to open up your phone and see stuff like that, so it was just all uncalled for," said Smith. 

A report released from Statistics Canada this year found one in four youth aged 12 to 17 experienced cyberbullying in 2018, including unwanted sexual or explicit messages.

A London-based youth violence expert is calling for policy, education and legal changes in the battle against online sexual harassment — and how it's talked about. 

"So much is changing so quickly when it comes to digital spaces," said Kaitlynn Mendes, associate professor and Canada Research Chair in Inequality and Gender at Western University. "This is the Wild West of digital technologies. Young people are out there on the frontlines."

Mendes said the term 'cyberbullying' isn't specific enough, it doesn't capture the negative impacts of getting unwanted explicit photos, sexual harassment or having your image shared without your consent.

"Many scholars for years have been arguing this, that 'cyberbullying' is just too big of a term. It's used really as a blanket to talk about a lot of really different harms and practices that happen online," she said. 

Cyberflashing is a preferred term that a lot of scholars are pushing for when referring to what is commonly called 'dick pics', she said. 

"If someone came up to you in the street and flashed, flashed themselves to you, we would inherently recognize that as a form of harm. But when it happens online, it was just being written off as bullying," she said.

"It's not taken as seriously. If we can start to see it as a form of sexual violence and harassment, and we can see that, for example, schools or policymakers will actually treat it very differently than if it's just bullying." 

'It's just so normalized we don't talk about it'

Students receiving unwanted sexual photos is something Grade 12 student Jordan Mohammed hears about "all the time."

"It's just so normalized that we don't talk about it," she said, and addes that it can have a negative impact affecting your mental health and school life most.

"There's obviously a lot of sexual harassment happening online every day," she said. "You see it if you go into TikTok or that and you look into, especially underage girls' comments sections. It's all comments about their body and stuff and saying like nasty things to women."

Mohammed said her peers are afraid to get help for fear of getting called a snitch or bullied even more. 

 "They deserve to be safe," said Victoria Jopek, Grade 12 student at Clarke Road, who's also been sent explicit photos and hateful messages on SnapChat.

"It leaves you feeling icky afterwards." 

After getting a photo of genitalia from a stranger, Smith said she upped all her privacy settings on social media, but still wants more to be done to prevent it.

"Harassment is a lot more of a strong word, and people take harassment more seriously than just bullying," she said. "Every single woman in some point in their life is going to experience sexual harassment and that is something that should not happen."

More conversations and education needed

There needs to be more conversations and education for young people about online dangers and where to go for support, said Mendes.

"Dangerous and scary things happen online, bad things happen online. But how can we give young people digital literacy skills to get them talking about these kinds of experiences?"

Mendes is part of a team of researchers working on five-year study looking into the gaps in policies, education and language surrounding 'technology-facilitated sexual violence' across Canada. She'll be presenting findings at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences at York University, which runs from May 27 to June 2. 

As part of the research, they'll work with charities to develop resources and supports to help schools talk about these issues.