Social media giants Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp have vowed to listen to the experiences of their young female users to improve safety and stamp out online abuse.
The tech giants said they would hold a series of listening sessions for female youth activists around the world, in an announcement on the International Day of the Girl on Sunday.
The sessions will provide the girls with an opportunity to share their lived experiences of social media abuse and open discussions about how the platforms could prevent bullying and harassment.
The sessions are being organised in conjunction with non-government organisation Plan International.
Cindy Southworth, head of women’s safety at Facebook, said the company valued the opportunity to hear directly from young female users.
“Abuse of women on the internet is a serious problem, one we tackle in a variety of ways, through technology that identifies and removes potentially abusive content, by enforcing strict policies and by talking with experts and people experiencing harassment or abuse,” she said.
It comes after a survey by Plan International found 58 per cent of 14,000 girls from 22 countries had been harassed or abused on social media.
The survey included participants from the United States, Brazil and India.
The listening session will include 15 youth activists in consultation with a broad range of girls and civil society organisations.
It will include girls from Japan, Brazil, India, the United Kingdom, United States, Spain Germany, Benin, Kenya and the Philippines.
Plan International chief executive Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, said it was important there were effective ways for girls to report abuse online.
“Harassment and abuse have no place in any aspect of our lives, and yet a majority of girls have told us that explicit messages, racial slurs, body-shaming and violent threats are what they experience on social media,” she said.
Plan International is also calling on national governments to introduce specific laws to deal with online gender-based violence.
