By Prince Osuagwu

A new report released by the United Nations Broadband Commission has said that urgent action was needed by the governments around the globe to help combat online violence against women and girls.

The new report revealed that almost three quarters of women online have been exposed to some form of cyber violence.

The new study has urged governments and industry around the world to work harder and more effectively together to better protect the growing number of women and girls who are victims of online threats and harassment.

The report noted that despite the rapidly growing number of women experiencing online violence, only 26 percent of law enforcement agencies in the 86 countries surveyed were taking appropriate action.

Without concerted global action to curb the various escalating forms of online violence, an unprecedented surge of ‘cyber violence against women and girls , according to the report could run rampant and significantly impede the uptake of broadband by women everywhere.

Entitled ‘Combatting Online Violence Against Women & Girls: A Worldwide Wake-Up Call’, the report was released recently at an event in the United Nations Headquarters in New York by the Commission’s Working Group on Gender.

Key findings of the report :
*An estimated 73 percent of women have already been exposed to, or have experienced, some form of online violence.

*Women in the age range of 18 to 24 are uniquely likely to experience stalking and sexual harassment in addition to physical threats.

*Nine million women in the European Union’s 28 countries alone have experienced online violence as young as 15 years old.

*One in five female Internet users live in countries where harassment and abuse of women online is extremely unlikely to be punished.

In many countries, according to the report, women are reluctant to report their victimization for fear of social repercussions.

The rapid spread of the Internet , the report added means that effective legal and social controls of online anti-social and criminal behaviours continue to be an immense challenge.

And in the age of the social Internet and ‘anywhere, anytime’ mobile access, cyber violence can strike at any time, and can relentlessly follow its targets everywhere they go, the report revealed.

“In this report we’re arguing that complacency and failure to address and solve cyber violence could significantly impede the uptake of broadband services by girls and women worldwide,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, who serves as co-Vice Chair of the Broadband Commission, alongside UNESCO Director-