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Gender-based and sexual violence in the digital age.

Digital communication is part of the context for the topics covered in MyOwn’s educational resources: intimate privacy, consent, and technology-facilitated violence and abuse. This introduction helps you find the relevant terms and source documents.

Online gender-based and sexual violence

MyOwn’s glossary discusses online harassment, threats, and the sharing of intimate content without consent. It also includes terms used to describe sexual violence and abuse. Reading the terms in context helps distinguish the subject being discussed instead of treating every form of online harm as the same.

The terminology page preserves the glossary’s full entries, aliases and cross-references. Its wording is a published source reference, not a set of verified legal definitions.

Technology-facilitated violence and abuse

The resources discuss how digital tools and platforms can be involved in abusive conduct. Topics include image-based sexual abuse, the distribution of intimate images without consent, and digitally forged intimate images. The glossary uses image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) as an umbrella term and includes a separate entry for nonconsensual distribution of intimate images (NDII).

Use these entries to explore the source’s terminology. This introduction does not determine legal liability, classify a particular incident, or describe the current scope of any law.

Key terms

Six words to know.

From MyOwn's 29-entry glossary. Select any term for the full entry and its cross-references.

Consent: affirmative, informed, voluntary and ongoing choice by an individual with legal capacity.
Digitally Forged Intimate Image (aka “deepfake” or synthetic): visual material that is digitally manipulated or falsified to make it appear that a person is nude, partially nude, or engaged in sexual conduct that they did not engage in.
Image-Based Sexual Abuse (IBSA) (aka Image-Based Sexual Violence): an umbrella term for a form of technology-facilitated sexual violence that encompasses a broad spectrum of abusive actions. This includes the nonconsensual creation of, theft of, distribution of and/or threats to distribute, sexually explicit or intimate images of another person without their explicit consent. IBSA covers both authentic and digitally forged intimate images (sometimes referred to as “deepfakes” or synthetics).
Nonconsensual Distribution of Intimate Images (NDII) (aka Nonconsensual Intimate Imagery- NCII, or Nonconsensual Pornography- NCP): refers to the distribution of sexually explicit or intimate images of an individual without their consent. This includes both images originally obtained without consent as well as images that were originally taken with consent and then later distributed without consent.
Sextortion: a form of extortion that involves a threat to distribute intimate images unless a demand is met- often for money, more explicit content, or other favors.
Technology-facilitated Gendered Violence (TFGV): any act of violence against a person based on their gender that is committed, amplified, or facilitated through the use of digital technologies, that results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological, social, political, or economic harm, or other infringements of rights and freedoms.

Three documents, three different jobs.

Learning vocabulary, examining a policy model, and consulting a media guide are different tasks. A model proposal and a glossary are not substitutes for a review of applicable law.

Terminology

The full 29-entry source glossary, with aliases and cross-references.

Browse the glossary

Model policy

A model document for state legislatures, not a statement that its provisions have been enacted.

Read the model policy

Media guide

The IBSA survivor media guide, 23 pages, for journalists and editors.

Download the PDF