Collective Violence

Technologies lead not only to increased communication but also to increased accountability and transparency. For instance, the organization Witness works to use the power of video advocacy by documenting and sharing human rights abuses. By working with constituents on the use of video as a medium for documentation, it has shed light on the repression of ethnic minorities in Burma and has helped to prosecute recruiters of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Sexual Violence and Intimate Partner Violence

SMS and geocoding technologies can be used to display incidents of violence in real time, which can be particularly effective in combating sexual violence. In Egypt, Medic:Mobile, in conjunction with the Ushahidi platform, has been used for Harassmap. The basic idea behind the program is that if a woman is sexually harassed she can send an SMS to the Harassmap number with details of the incident. This information will then be mapped on the website, allowing “hotspots” of harassment to be identified. Harassmap also provides help and information for victims. This use of technology is a way to break the silence that surrounds the issue, and it helps empower vulnerable groups of women in this geographic area.

Digital storytelling is another powerful tool for empowering victims and educating offenders on the effects their actions can have. The Mobile Cinema Foundation program uses short films to expose soldiers in camps to the consequences of rape. The goal is to educate the soldiers of the Congolese National Army through victims' testimonies and post-viewing discussions.

Conventional forms of technology and media can also play integral roles in the prevention of intimate partner violence. For example, hotlines and awareness campaigns can use both traditional and new media. Bell Bajao! is a series of public service announcements in India urging men and boys to combat domestic violence by notifying abusers that the community is watching. Liz Claiborne's Love Is Not Abuse iPhone application helps teach parents about teen dating abuse and demonstrates how technology, such as text messages, e-mails, and phone calls, can be conduits for committing abuse.

Texting is also used in some programs to prevent intimate partner violence. FamilyFirst is a program in the United States that uses a texting service that allows victims to report incidents silently via a simple SMS message and to make contact with a crisis intervention worker or police without making an actual phone call.

The Grameen Phone Foundation's Village Phone model is based on providing a small loan and a “business-in-a-box” to entrepreneurs to provide customers with access to a mobile phone and mobile airtime. Providing women with access to mobile devices allows them to move toward economic independence, which reduces their vulnerability to violence.

Elder Abuse

Hotlines and sharing of information via the Internet are integral to helping increase awareness of and to decreasing the incidence of elder abuse. The National Center on Elder Abuse has state resources, such as helplines and hotlines.

Social media platforms have been integrated into many elders' residences. For example, MyWay Village is a social network installed in nursing homes that allows residents to connect with new people and their families in order to share memories, information, and experiences, to play games, and most important, to feel less isolated.

Youth Violence

Youth are the fastest adopters of new media and mobile technology. The National Dating Abuse Helpline recently made its services available via text message by allowing teens to text a number and, in return, to receive help from trained peer advocates. CeaseFire in Chicago, Illinois, tracks violence in real time so that interrupters can intervene in tense situations. With Ushahidi, Medic:Mobile, and PopTech, the project PeaceTXT will look at how mobile tools can help accelerate CeaseFire's success.

Speaker Ben Sawyer of Games for Health said that games are an empowerment intervention for youth but that sometimes the empowerment and aspiration developed stay contained within the game. “What we have to figure out is whether or not we can take this really powerful concept that exists within games and … make it translatable outside of their world,” he said. With Play2Prevent, he aims to prompt youth to discuss how they can translate the ideas that they have within games into their real lives.

Another example of a youth violence prevention program, Cool School, is made by Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and is an animated adventure series produced by a game developer that takes a character-based approach to talking about bullying and violence prevention in schools. Other examples include NSTeens from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Web Wise Kids.

Child Abuse

There has been an increase in health text messaging programs that target medically underserved populations. Text4Baby, guided by the Department of Health and Human Services, is a public–private partnership that provides pregnant women and new mothers with free text messages concerning health. The messages range from tips on how to care for the baby to information about what to expect during pregnancy. The mobile phone also offers a way both to report child abuse and to increase awareness of the issue. As well, hotlines are available to both adults and children, including the National Child Abuse Hotline, which is run by Childhelp.

Speaker Judith Carta of the University of Kansas noted that mobile phones can be used to enhance any kind of home visiting or parenting intervention. In particular she suggested they could be used for improving home safety for children and for improving early intervention for children with developmental problems. With certain smartphones or tablets, video streaming is being used to transmit information to parents. The next step is to move toward broad-scale implementation in order to affect a larger number of parents.

Self-Directed Violence

Telehelp, life and crisis lines, and call centers are important in dealing with self-directed violence. There are several online support groups that allow those at risk to reach out and connect with others, thus ensuring that they know that they are not alone. Awareness of and access to services permits many to move past the social stigma that is often attached to depression and suicide.

As in other areas of violence, there is controversy regarding the creation and use of some mobile applications, such as suicide-prevention applications. Some mobile applications let users track their moods and experiences, providing supplemental information for them as well as for their therapists.

As is the case with youth violence, blame is often placed on technology and media for suicide, and for teen suicide in particular, because of the presence of cyberbullying. Several speakers said that, in reality, it is difficult to determine how great a role media and technology have played in these deaths.

Potential Application to Disability and Impairment

Some speakers discussed the potential of information and communications technologies to reach and empower those populations who have cognitive or functional impairments or disabilities, but they noted this area has yet to be explored fully. Speaker and Forum member XinQi Dong of Rush Institute for Healthy Aging commented that the area of elder abuse involves very vulnerable groups, including those with Alzheimer's disease and those who are highly dependent on others. People with disabilities are also at very high risk for experiencing all forms of violence. Speaker and Forum co-chair Mark Rosenberg of the Task Force for Global Health asked, “How can we use social media to compensate for some of the disabilities that people may have to start to protect them against some of the violence?”