Women, gender-diverse people on P.E.I. learn tips to navigate online harassment

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These were some of the takeaways from a workshop Saturday in Charlottetown aimed at helping people deal with online harassment.

It was hosted by the P.E.I. Coalition for Women in Government.

Executive director Sarah Outram said technology-facilitated violence, or cyberbullying, is a reason some women and gender-diverse people are hesitant to run for public office or pursue leadership positions.

"The reasoning behind online harassment is to change behaviour," she said. 

"More often than not, it is to silence. It is to create isolation. It's to keep people separated. That is the goal."

Outram said she has had people approach her in the last few months to talk about running for office or another leadership role "and you bet technology-facilitated violence comes up as a genuine concern for them."

Chelsey Rogerson, chair of the P.E.I. Coalition for Women in Government, said technology-based violence can have serious impacts — "all the way from just causing perhaps anxiety and depression and unfortunately all the way till someone is facing some really serious mental and physical harms."

She said it doesn't always stay online. "Sometimes this goes offline and can be seriously a danger to women, and we want to make sure that we are giving everyone every tool in their toolkit to be able to navigate this."

Online harassment is becoming a growing issue as more people have access to smartphones and technology, she said.

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"A lot of people are scared," she said. "They don't want to put themselves out there, but we need those people to put themselves out there."

Outram said she hopes different levels of government will become more involved in drafting regulations around technology-based violence. She's optimistic about the federal government's Online Harms Bill.

"So there's a variety of areas, whether it's image-based abuse or the protection of children online that are the main facets of this," she said. "We're watching the discussion and excited to see where that goes."