Sexual Violence in Higher Education: What's Technology got to do with it? Protection, Prevention, Intervention Workshop

This interactive session is particularly relevant to practitioners, operational and strategic managers, students and university support and academic staff. The session commences with a brief overview of the changing landscape and demographics of technological and social media use in the 21st Century. Comparisons are explored in relation to on line and off line experiences of Relationships, Intimacy and Respect as a precursor to concentrating on the main focus of the session which is concerned with examining how coercion and control manifests in relationships within social media/digital experiences for young people who are by and large digital natives in a sexual context. Activities and group discussion are utilised to examine the accumulative effects of the mediated normalisation of sexism and the coercive and control tactics employed on line in the regulation of victim’s/survivor’s everyday lives. The session seeks to engage participants in reflective thinking using presenter input coupled with facilitated collaborative working via group exercise and discussion. The session is a useful tool to explore understandings of the complex ways in which the use of social media/digital media can contribute to experiences of coercion and control and consider how they might effectively be addressed and prevented. The implications for policy, practice and procedures at personal, operational and strategic levels in various occupational settings alongside academic institutions may be considered and examples of innovation and developing practice shared. Maximum number of participants 30 50-50 split between facilitator input including Q&A and facilitated group work activities.