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🗞️One in Seven Adults Admit to Tech-Facilitated Sexual Harassment in Australia

🗞️One in Seven Adults Admit to Tech-Facilitated Sexual Harassment in Australia

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The first national study to look into workplace technology-facilitated sexual harassment (WTFSH) has found that one in seven Australian adults surveyed admit to engaging in this form of sexual harassment at work.

WTFSH is when someone uses mobile, online or digital technologies in a sexual way at work. It can happen during or after working hours.

The study was led by Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS), together with Associate Professor Asher Flynn from Monash University and Professor Anastasia Powell from RMIT University. The research shows that gender plays a role in who perpetrates WTFSH. 24 per cent of men surveyed admitted to using technology to engage in workplace sexual harassment, compared to 7 per cent of women.

Other key findings included:

Almost half (45%) of those who sexually harassed their colleagues at work were in male-dominated workplaces.
The perpetrators of this behaviour tried to downplay the seriousness of their actions, with 52% saying that the victims would be “okay with it”, 45% saying that the victims would be flattered, and 42% saying that the victims would find it humorous. Some of the perpetrators said that they wanted to pursue a sexual or personal relationship with the victims (41%).
One in four perpetrators said they did it on purpose, to annoy (31 per cent), humiliate (30 per cent), frighten (30 per cent), hurt the feelings of (30 per cent) or express their anger towards (31 per cent) the victim-survivor.
People surveyed were over 15 times more likely to engage in WTFSH if they held strong sexist and discriminatory attitudes, making these attitudes the strongest predictor of such behaviour.
The most common devices and platforms for WTFSH included work email (31 per cent), personal phone or mobile (29 per cent), personal email (27 per cent) and work phone or mobile (25 per cent).
Despite the prevalence of WTFSH, less than half (39 per cent) of perpetrators had any formal reports or complaints made against them.

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Dr Asher Flynn, Associate Professor of Criminology at Monash University, said the findings were important.

“These findings show how common workplace technology-facilitated sexual harassment is. They also show how attitudes and motivations behind such behaviours can be troubling. It's important we address these issues to make workplaces safer and more respectful for everyone,” Dr Flynn said.

CEO at ANROWS, Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine, explained how new technologies in the workplace were creating new avenues for abuse.

“The need to address this sexual harassment gap is all the more urgent. Employers need to build safety into workplace cultures and technologies to protect their staff. Likewise, policymakers must prioritise implementing effective measures to prevent and address these behaviours,” said Dr Boyd-Caine.

This is one of the first reports from ANROWS’s Sexual Harassment Research Program (SHRP) and it offers some really useful insights for Australian employers and policymakers who are trying to combat tech-based sexual harassment in the workplace.

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🗞️One in Seven Adults Admit to Tech-Facilitated Sexual Harassment in Australia

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