KRG releases survey on cyberviolence

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) interior ministry on Friday released the results of a survey on cyberviolence, showing that most respondents prefer to block offending accounts rather than file a lawsuit when facing online abuse.

The survey was published by the ministry's General Directorate of Combating Violence against Women and Family as a 16-day campaign to spread awareness on violence against women continues in the Kurdistan Region. 

It was conducted online over a one-month period with 1,167 participants from all provinces of the Kurdistan Region.

When asked how they would respond to cyberviolence, 19.4 percent of respondents said they would only block and report the account of the harasser. Notably, just 7.9 percent said they would file a lawsuit, while more than half indicated they would report the incident to the police.

When asked if they knew that a specific law about misuse of communication devices exists in the Kurdistan Region, over 40 percent of them said they were not aware of such a law. Only 7.5 percent of them said they were fully aware of it. 

Nearly 75 percent of respondents said they have never faced cyberbullying, while 12.4 percent reported experiencing it once and 9.6 percent said they had encountered it more than once. 

According to the survey data, female participation was higher at 56.8 percent, while males were 43.2 percent. Over fifty percent of respondents were between 19-24 years old, and 15.3 percent were between 25-34 years old.

The survey concludes with several recommendations, including teaching "digital education" courses in schools and universities, amending laws, and training government employees on the details of digital violence and artificial intelligence.