10 December 2025
No to Violence is calling for national recognition of digital violence as a core form of domestic and family violence, warning that behaviours like monitoring partners’ devices, tracking locations, demanding passwords and controlling online access are serious forms of violence, not minor relationship issues.
“The biggest challenge we face is that digital abuse often goes completely unrecognised,” said Phillip Ripper, CEO of No to Violence. Men will often say ‘I didn’t think it was abuse because I wasn’t hitting her.’ But control, surveillance and psychological harm through technology IS violence, and recognising that is the first step towards change.”
The theme of this year’s 16 Days of Activism “UNiTE to End Digital Violence Against All Women and Girls,” focuses on ending digital violence against women and girls, highlighting the global scale of the problem. UN agencies report that up to 58 per cent of women and 20 per cent of girls experience digital abuse, including stalking, online harassment, image-based exploitation and deepfakes.
Australian data confirms technology-facilitated abuse is widespread. A recent ANROWS study found that one in two Australian adults had experienced at least one technology-facilitated abusive behaviour in their lifetime. The vast majority of victim-survivors (62 per cent) reported the perpetrator was a man, and one in three said the perpetrator was a current or former intimate partner.
The consequences of failing to recognise technology-facilitated abuse can be deadly. Data from the Australian Domestic and Family Violence Death Review Network found that stalking, including technology-facilitated stalking, occurred in the lead-up to 41.5 per cent of intimate partner homicides in Australia. Technology enables perpetrators to monitor and control victim-survivors with unprecedented reach and persistence. Despite this evidence, technology-facilitated abuse is frequently minimised, ignored or unrecognised by police, courts, and the broader community as a serious form of domestic violence.
“Many people don’t recognise that using technology to track a partner’s location, monitor their communications, or control their online access is family violence,” Mr Ripper said. “Technology evolves quickly, and men are using it to stalk and harm partners and family members in ways that often fly under the radar.”
As digital abuse escalates and becomes more sophisticated, No to Violence is calling for technology built with safety from the start through the eSafety Commissioner’s Safety by Design principles, tighter controls on tracking devices for high-risk users with safeguards to prevent misidentifying the predominant aggressor, and stronger workforce capability to respond to the expanding digital tools used in abuse. This includes training to understand how specific technologies can be weaponised, recognising patterns of technology-facilitated abuse that differ from physical violence indicators, and assessing risk in technology-mediated contexts.
“Digital monitoring, tracking and control through technology are serious forms of domestic and family violence. Recognising these behaviours early is critical to keeping women and children safe,” Mr Ripper said. “Men who are concerned about their use of surveillance or tracking should reach out to the Men’s Referral Service, which is available around the clock to help men take responsibility and make safer choices.”
