Exploitation and abuse long predate the internet, as do bullying, harassment and doxxing. But the internet and, increasingly, artificial intelligence have the capacity to deliver these old harms at terrifying speed and scale.
The quantity of child sexual abuse material found online has been dramatically increasing. The scale of other forms of image-based abuse, such as deepfakes, is largely unknown, but early research suggests levels of victimisation that are not trivial. We have every reason to think they too are growing exponentially. Social media, online gaming, smartphones: all these technologies are also creating new opportunities for grooming while reshaping old ones.
Meanwhile, policymakers, law enforcement, advocates and corporations are struggling to keep up. There is an established market for ‘solutions’ and a dizzying array of tech-based interventions out there purporting to combat tech-enabled abuse. Some are good, some are ineffectual, and some do outright harm. The combination of a rapidly evolving problem, technological complexities, governance challenges, weak regulation, and high demand for ‘doing something’ makes it confusing to know what is needed. And all too easy to sell digital snake oil.
