Price: FREE to Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County workers 

      £15 for workers out of area (due to funding)

Date: Tuesday 9th February 2021 (2pm-4pm)

Location: Online
Duration: Two Hours

Equation welcomes two speakers to join us for this seminar on the use of technology in the context of domestic abuse.  We will be joined by Dr Leonie Tanczer of University College London and Dr Tirion Havard of London South Bank University who will explore how technology is utilised by perpetrators of domestic abuse and the impact of this on survivors.

For more information about the speakers and content of this session please see below:

Dr Tirion Havard is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Work in the School of Health and Social Care at London South Bank University and her research explores the use of mobile phones in the coercive control of heterosexual women survivors.

Leonie Maria Tanczer is Lecturer in International Security and Emerging Technologies at University College London’s (UCL) Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP). Her research focuses on questions related to Internet security and she is specifically interested in the intersection points of technology, security and gender. She is Principal Investigator of the “Gender and IoT” (#GIoT) pilot study which examines the implications of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies on victims of gender-based domestic violence and abuse. She is also involved in one of eight UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)-funded mental health networks. As a member of the “Violence, Abuse and Mental Health: Opportunities for Change” (VAMHN) network led by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London, she studies how new digital technologies are changing people’s experiences of abuse and how this impacts on mental health.

Summary:

In recent years, forms of online harassment and sexual abuse facilitated through information and communication technologies (ICT) emerged. These ICT-supported assaults range from cyberstalking to online behavioural control. While many efforts to tackle technology-facilitated abuse (“tech abuse”) are concerned with ‘conventional’ cyber risks such as abuses on social media platforms and restrictions to devices such as laptops and phones, emerging “Internet of Things” (IoT) technologies such as ‘smart’ meters, locks, and cameras expand domestic violence victim’s risk trajectories further. In this workshop, findings from the “Gender and IoT” (#GIoT) research project will be outlined. GIoT runs in collaboration with a wide user partner group, including the London VAWG Consortium, the digital rights charity Privacy International, and the UK-wide PETRAS IoT Research Hub. The research project analyses evolving IoT privacy and security risks. It studies ‘smart’ technologies impact on gender-based domestic and sexual violence and abuse and the socio-technical measures that will need to be implemented in order to mitigate against those risks. The GIoT team has already provided guidance for support services that engage and help victims and survivors (see: guide and resource list). These resources will be featured in the workshop and the latest technological trends will be explored in more depth.