Promoting Safe Spaces Online through Focus Group Discussions

The advances of digital technologies (ICTs, ie Internet, mobile telephony, social media, blogs) have unblocked many opportunities in the way people interact among each other, access information, communicate, access services, work etc. Benefiting to the advantage of these opportunities has been unequally among men and women. According to the International Telecommunications Union the proportion of women using the internet globally is 12% lower than the proportion of men; this gender gap widens to 32.9% in the least developed countries. Lack of access and skills, online harassment and under presentation of women in the fields such as computer, technologies, engineering and mathematics have been cited as factors behind the existing online gender gap.

Women at Web Tanzania organised a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) that brought together twenty young women on August 30, 2019 with a theme ‘Equals in Tech: ‘Bridging the gender digital divide and open women online opportunities’

The FGD was organised as part of a call for advocacy and awareness on safe spaces for women online, awareness of measures and structures in places, while exposing women to the benefits and opportunities from being online.

Fig 1: The objectives of the Women at Web Focus Group Discussion with 20 young females active online users

The event was opened by an introduction and a presentation from the Women at Web Tanzania Co-Founder, Ms. Asha D. Abinallah, who gave a detailed introduction by also introducing the funders as DW Akademie. She opened her remarks with the introduction about Women at Web project and the objectives of the Focus Group Discussion as portrayed above. She emphasised the need of having an action plan that would be used to plan an advocacy plan.

The presentation had highlighted on the factors that hinders active Participation of Women online’ indicated as below,

1. Affordability is one of the challenges, women being responsible for production and reproduction weigh the required amounts in regards to items such as use of mobile data versus having food on the table.
2. Accessibility factor has to do with devices used, availability of Internet Service providers as well as the required basic digital skills required to use.
3. Digital illiteracy at individual, family and community level. There has been misconceptions in the community about the pros of the use and access to the internet. The majority have a strong feeling that the online space is not safe for women.
4. Availability of valid quality and relevant content. Most of the contents are in foreign language thus there is a need to advocate for more local quality content in Tanzania.
5. Online gender based violence and abuse (such as bullying, harassment, blackmailing etc)
6. Over regulating (laws i.e cyber crimes, EPOCA-Online Content)

Several pictues taken during the Focus Group Discussion that had happened on August 30, 2019

During the FGD participants acknowledged the project initiatives towards increasing women participation online. The discussions revealed among other issues, that the lack of local and relevant content in most of the online sites poses a great obstacle to reaching majority of women . They were also of the view that most of the women join online platform without clear purpose or objective hence mostly end up searching wrong platforms with wrong content without knowing how to digitally project themselves thus prone to online violence.

During the discussions several forms of abuse and online gender based violence where identified such as bullying, blackmailing, trolling, stalking, revenge porn, cat-fishing, internet scammer to which the majority victims are women. It was proposed that to address these challenges dedicated efforts were to be established. The participants eventually had their views on how what was to be done so as to increase participation of women on the online space. They noted that in order to increase more women online the following could be done;

1. Exposing different opportunities available online to women who are online and those will capacity to get online.
2. Identify and address the existing challenges.
3. Share the digital skills knowledge among women with the tech-know how of basic digital skills.
4. Gender inclusion in campaigns and advocacies that promote safe spaces online.
5. Conduct campaigns that target young female students.
6. Create, curate and publish content that creates awareness and gives room for learned engagement.
7. Awareness on the laws and regulations governing the online space.
8. Establish a support group or initiative that would provide guidance to victims.
9. Involve as many stakeholders as possible to support the initiative and make it part of their programs.

A fun pic after completion of the FGD on August 30, 2019

This Focus Group Discussion was monumental to the Women at Web Tanzania Project. Two years later, the discussion has been a root of several Women at Web Tanzania activities such as online advocacy campaigns to promote safe spaces online and advocate against online gender based violence, it has inspired the peer to peer support group activities as well as stakeholders engagements that involved a variety of partners from different organisations both private and public as well as from the Civil Society Organisations.

Media Convergency is a co-implementer in Tanzania for the DW Akademie’s Women at Web Project. For further information about the Women At Web Tanzania project you can visit our social media pages through this link — https://linktr.ee/WomenAtWebTZ

For contacts drop us an email |womenatwebtz@mediaconvergency.co.tz