Digital spaces were never built with women’s safety in mind – but young women across Australia are now using those same spaces to drive the systems change we urgently need.
During this year’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the call is to “UNiTE to End Digital Violence against All Women and Girls”. The contrast could not be sharper: the platforms that have been weaponised against women are becoming the very places where young women are organising, advocating and reshaping policy.
Rather than stepping back from online harm, they are stepping forward with new forms of leadership – and they are changing what digital power looks like.
Across the country, young women and gender-diverse people are stepping into digital spaces not simply to participate, but to transform them. They are reclaiming platforms that were never designed with them in mind – platforms built, as technology scholar danah boyd has famously argued, by “brogrammers” who unintentionally coded inequity into the very architecture of the internet. If bias can be engineered in, young women are proving it can also be engineered out.
The urgency is unmistakable. Reports of domestic and family violence have risen by 30% in the past year, and almost every victim-survivor, an astonishing 99.3 per cent, now experiences some form of technology-facilitated abuse. Globally, one in three women will experience violence in her lifetime, and increasingly that violence arrives through the devices we rely on for work, connection and safety.
Professor Anastasia Powell, a leading national expert on technology-facilitated abuse, reminds us that digital violence is not separate from other forms of harm. In her research for ANROWS, she notes that technology is simply the newest tool for coercive control, used to stalk, monitor, threaten and shame long after relationships end. As she puts it, “a key feature of domestic and family violence is control, and perpetrators will often use any means possible to extend that control over a victim survivor.”
This expansion of harm into online spaces is reshaping what it means to feel safe. The eSafety Commissioner has documented an increase in GPS tracking, deepfakes, hacked accounts and covert surveillance devices. Legal Aid NSW now sees digital monitoring in 60 per cent of new coercive control matters. These aren’t fringe experiences, they are now central to the landscape of abuse.
But this is not only a story about risk. It is also a story about resistance.
At YWCA Australia, we hear every day from young people looking for ways to take action safely, creatively and on their own terms. Many cannot attend traditional advocacy spaces because of work, study, geography or safety concerns. Others simply want a way to participate without fear of harassment or judgment. What they are asking for is space – secure, accessible, connected space – to lead.
They are building that space themselves. YWCA’s Digital Activist Community is one example: a moderated online network where young women and gender-diverse people build digital advocacy skills, collaborate across states, and turn lived experience into meaningful policy influence. This community is transforming online platforms from sites of risk into sites of solidarity and power.
As Clara, a member of the Digital Activist Community, explains, “Online communities create space for solidarity and collective strength. They make advocacy more accessible… and ensure voices from rural, remote, and marginalised communities are included.” Another member emphasises how vital safe online spaces are for women from CALD and migrant backgrounds, who may face cultural stigma, language barriers or isolation: “Online communities give them a voice and connection, helping ensure no one is left behind.”
This is what change looks like in the digital age: young women creating the conditions for safety that the system has not yet delivered.
Alongside our Digital Activist Community is the Young Women’s Council, a national leadership body of women and gender-diverse people aged 18–30 who help shape YWCA’s advocacy, strategic direction and policy work. Over two years, Council members gain leadership experience, strengthen their networks and contribute to national campaigns, particularly around housing insecurity, gender equality and safety. These are emerging leaders who understand that digital literacy, civic participation and feminist policy reform must run hand in hand.
Our Digital Activist Community complements this work by inviting young women to take part in online campaigns, contribute to submissions, engage with government and create digital content that shifts public narratives. They are using the very platforms that have been weaponised against women to instead build movements and drive legislative attention. In doing so, they are modelling what a safer digital world could look like.
The 16 Days of Activism offers Australia a chance to confront the reality of technology-facilitated abuse – but also to embrace the leadership of young women who are already charting solutions. Their activism shows us that digital spaces can be redesigned.
Narratives can shift. Systems can change. And when young women are empowered, they don’t only take part in digital spaces – they transform them into places where safety, dignity and collective power can thrive.
This year, as we unite to end digital violence, we must follow their lead.