Let’s make the digital world safe for women and girls

What would you do if your face appeared in a video, you never filmed? Or if a stranger online, out of the blue, knew your home address, your workplace, even the time your child finishes classes?

For millions of women and girls, these aren’t just chilling “what ifs” - they’re real. What started as a space for connection and opportunity has, for too many, become a place of unwanted exposure and fear. The internet reflects our societies - and sometimes it shockingly magnifies their darkest sides.

As Europe marks 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, let’s not forget that this fight is no longer limited to homes, streets, or workplaces. It now reaches deep into the digital world - a world that shapes how we live, work, and speak, but too often leaves women unprotected.

Online abuse is not that rare anymore. Various studies show that around half of women have experienced some form of digital violence, ranging from stalking and harassment to the sharing of intimate images without consent. Each statistic hides a story. A teenager driven out of school. A journalist who stops writing. A mother who deletes her social media just to feel safe again. Violence through a screen still hurts, still isolates, still leaves scars.

It’s hard to take it anymore. We want action, not sympathy. We want our daughters to be as safe online as they should be on the street. Across Europe, survivors and victims are pushing for change. In France, the #StopFisha movement, started by teenage girls who refused to be humiliated any longer, showed how devastating image-based abuse can be.  Their courage prompted Europe to examine the scale of the problem more closely.

But courage alone cannot fix a system that failed to protect women. For years, laws stopped at national borders, while abuse crossed them with a single click. Offenders conveniently hid behind anonymity. Tech companies hid behind excuses. The Istanbul Convention laid the foundation for combating violence against women, but the rise of digital platforms brought new forms of harm that existing laws simply couldn’t get a hold of.

That’s why we, in the EPP Group, took the lead in shaping the first-ever EU Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence, adopted in 2024. We recognised that digital violence is not a side issue - it’s one of today’s most pressing human rights challenges.

This European Directive is our answer to an old injustice in a new form. It makes the non-consensual sharing of intimate or manipulated images, cyberstalking, online harassment, and incitement to hatred punishable across all Member States. It guarantees that victims can access protection, justice, and support wherever they live. And it sends a clear message: what is illegal offline must also be illegal online.

Not every battle has been won. The Directive lacked the inclusion ofthe offence of rape, something the European Parliament, and the EPP Group in particular, fought hard for. But it’s a major step towards a Europe where no woman’s safety ends where her Wi-Fi begins.

Think of it as Europe building a digital shelter - a space where rights, rules, and respect finally apply.

Now comes the harder part: turning our vision into reality. Member States must move fast to implement the Directive by training police and prosecutors, funding victim support, and ensuring abusive content is swiftly removed. Tech companies have a duty, too, to use their algorithms to stop hate, not to spread it. And we all have a moral imperative to stop sharing humiliation, to speak up when we see abuse, and to teach our children that consent and respect don’t disappear when the screen lights up.

Prevention, protection, and prosecution. These are three words that define Europe’s approach. Together they form a promise: that women and girls can live, work, and speak online without fear.

So, as we mark this 25 November, let’s make it more than a date on the calendar. Let it be a turning point - a day when Europe stands together and says: we will protect you, we will stand beside you, and step by step, law by law, we will make the digital world safe for everyone.