Measuring technology-facilitated sexual violence and abuse: a scoping review protocol of existing measurements

Abstract

Introduction

Technology-facilitated sexual violence and abuse (TFSVA) refers to a range of behaviours in which digital technologies are used to facilitate both virtual and face-to-face sexual harm. The proliferation of smartphone usage and increasing internet penetration rates across the world have made it easier for individuals to become perpetrators and victims of TFSVA. Since empirical studies of TFSVA remain limited in the academic arena, and there is an absence of evidence to support the development of a standardised TFSVA measurement, this review aims to explore what TFSVA measurements are currently available and their potential use in measuring TFSVA.

Methods and analysis

This scoping review will be structured according to the Joanna Briggs Institute recommended framework. Keywords related to ‘technology’, ‘sexual violence’ and ‘measure’ will be used. Any paper related to measurements of TFSVA will be included without limitation to any population or setting. A search will be conducted from database inception until May 2024 for published literature in English and Chinese electronic databases, which included PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus, ProQuest, Web of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, SinoMed, Index to Taiwan Periodical Literature and Ariti Library. Screening and study selection will be conducted by two independent reviewers. Data will be extracted and reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews Checklist. The PAGER (Patterns, Advances, Gaps, Evidence for practice and Research recommendations) Framework will be used to report the findings.

Ethics and dissemination

Since the scoping review methodology consists of reviewing and collecting data from publicly available materials, this study does not require ethics approval. This scoping review has the potential to serve as the most appropriate way to explore existing evidence related to this emerging phenomenon. The results of this review are expected to highlight various types of TFSVA measurement developed in different settings. Further work is required to develop measurements adapted for specific populations and tested to ensure acceptability and cultural competence. The results will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed publication and conference presentations.

Review registration

The protocol of this review was registered within the Open Science Framework (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/Q5ETW) on 13 March 2024.

STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS OF THIS STUDY.

• The protocol is based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocols guidelines.

• A comprehensive search strategy includes 10 electronic databases with peer-reviewed literature.

• Study selection was expanded to both English and Chinese databases, which may minimise selection bias.

• Selection of studies can be limited due to the lack of uniformed definition of technology-facilitated sexual violence and abuse.

Background

Sexual violence affects millions of people worldwide and represents a serious global public health problem. In particular, one in three women, which equates to approximately 736 million, is subjected to sexual violence in their lifetime.¹ Whereas global data on male victims are limited, one in four men in the USA has experienced some form of sexual violence in their lifetime.² According to the WHO, sexual violence is any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act or other act directed against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting.³ Common examples of sexual violence include rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse and sexual harassment.³ The rapid proliferation of technology, such as the internet and mobile devices, has led to increased opportunities for and prevalence of online sexual violence worldwide.^{4 5}

Digital sexual violence is a broad and complex phenomenon that encompasses various types of interpersonal behaviours perpetrated through digital means.⁶ These actions are considered unwanted, intrusive and/or harmful to the victim.⁶ Terminology in this field varies. For instance, the Into the Light report by the Childlight—Global Child Safety Institute defines online child sexual exploitation and abuse as ‘all types of sexually abusive and exploitative behaviours that occur either online or through the use of information and communication technologies’.⁷ Henry and Powell refer to ‘technology-facilitated sexual violence’ (TFSV) in a literature review, encompassing a range of behaviours where digital technologies facilitated both virtual and face-to-face sexual harms, such as (1) online sexual harassment, (2) gender-based and sexuality-based harassment, (3) cyberstalking, (4) image-based sexual exploitation and (5) the use of a carriage service to coerce a victim into an unwanted sexual act.⁸ An empirical study in Spain also adopted the term ‘TFSV’ to describe various forms of digital violence, measuring (1) gender harassment, (2) gender-role harassment, (3) sexual orientation harassment, (4) digital sexual harassment, (5) sextortion and (6) non-consensual pornography.⁹ A recent scoping review expanded the term to ‘technology-facilitated sexual violence and abuse’ (TFSVA), adding ‘abuse’ to encompass a broader range of issues.¹⁰ This review identified seven themes related to TFSVA, including (1) online/digital sexual harassment, (2) image-based sexual abuse, (3) gender-based hate speech, trolling and/or memes harassment, (4) impersonation, doxing and defamation, (5) physical and/or rape threats, (6) coercive control and (7) monitoring through digital technologies.¹⁰

The conceptualisation and operational definition of digital sexual violence vary and continue to evolve with new technologies. For instance, deepfake image-based sexual violence has emerged with the increasing popularity of artificial intelligence technology.¹¹ Given the ever-evolving nature of this concept, achieving a uniform and agreed-upon definition is challenging. In this paper, the term ‘TFSVA’ is used to describe all potential sexual behaviours perpetrated through the internet or any digital technology. The term is not limited to abusive acts that occur online but also includes physical sexual abuse facilitated by online means. This inclusion is supported by findings from a qualitative study among gay men using dating apps in Hong Kong, which documented experiences of physical forms of sexual violence, such as stealthing, with an abuser they met via the app.¹²

TFSVA has drawn considerable attention in recent years as there is an increasing number of TFSVA victimisation and perpetration cases with the advancement of technology.⁸ In terms of victimisation, a meta-analysis and systematic review revealed that 8.8% of people have had their sexually explicit images or sexually explicit messages (sexts) shared without their consent, 7.2% have been threatened with sexting and 17.6% have had sexually explicit images taken without permission.¹³ In terms of perpetration, a recent study reported that over 1 in 10 individuals engaged in TFSVA perpetration behaviours.¹⁴

Existing studies were mainly investigating TFSVA prevalence and behaviours among youth and adolescents.^{15 16} Youth and adolescents are more vulnerable to TFSVA as they may lack digital literacy skills to navigate the online space safely.¹⁷ Moreover, they may be more susceptible to become perpetrators due to peer pressure and desire for attention.¹⁸ TFSVA can impact individuals of all ages, yet this phenomenon among the adult population was understudied.^{19 20} Adults are legally considered capable of providing consent in most jurisdictions. However, issues like sexual coercion or exploitation through technology can still occur alike to youth and adolescents.²¹ In addition, adults are more likely to experience symptoms like anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder due to social stigma and shame.²² Therefore, it is important to investigate this phenomenon among different age groups and the subsequent analysis of this review will also be categorised based on different populations.

Currently, there is no agreed-upon terminology or definition among scholars who study TFSVA resulting in a diverse range of concepts across the literature.^{14 19} This lack of uniformity makes it difficult to assess the prevalence and effects of these behaviours.²³ The lack of standardised measurements could have substantially affected the interpretation of study findings. It is important to continue gathering data to develop a standardised and comprehensive measurement that assesses broader perspectives of TFSVA.

To the best of our knowledge, there is no systematically reviewed evidence available on the existing measurement for TFSVA. It is difficult to conduct a systematic review on this topic due to a lack of precise definitions and research variables in the current evidence about TFSVA, which results in a wide array of measurements to assess different forms and outcomes of TFSVA. For that reason, a scoping review is appropriate to explore the emerging and complex nature of TFSVA measurements where existing research may be heterogeneous and lack synthesis. Although the concepts of TFSVA are not well defined, the term conceptualises a phenomenon that encompasses various behaviours that are committed through technology to enable sexual and gender-based harassment and victimisation.^{8 24} TFSVA also extends beyond physical violence and includes psychologically harmful acts.¹⁴ In this study, TFSVA refers to any form of sexual violence, exploitation or harassment through the misuse of digital technologies, with reference to a recent scoping review about TFSVA.¹⁰ This scoping review can map the known information about a topic based on available information and identify potential gaps in the literature to assess the state of knowledge about the topic.²⁵ This scoping review will provide a broad overview of the available research evidence relating to the existing measurements of TFSVA.

Methods and analysis

A scoping review will be performed to identify the existing measurements that assess TFSVA across different settings and population groups. The scoping review will be structured according to the updated methodological guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) by Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) to ensure rigour.^{26 27} It will also use the PAGER Framework developed by Bradbury-Jones et al as a tool to determine the patterns, advances, gaps, evidence and recommendations within the included literature.²⁸ The current protocol is drafted according to the PRISMA Protocols (PRISMA-P), and the corresponding checklist is attached in online supplemental file 1 .²⁹ The protocol of this review is registered with the Open Science Framework (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/Q5ETW) on 13 March 2024.

The proposed review is guided by the methodological framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley.²⁵ The following five steps will be adopted in this scoping review: (1) identifying the research question, (2) identifying relevant studies, (3) study selection, (4) charting the data and (5) collating, summarising and reporting the results.

Identifying the research question

As the aim of this scoping review is to explore existing measurements to assess TFSVA, a broad question is central to ‘generate breadth of coverage’.²⁵ The question ‘What measurements are currently available to assess TFSVA?’ will guide the search strategy.

Identifying relevant studies

A search will be conducted from database inception to May 2024 for published literature on the research area in six English electronic databases and four Chinese electronic databases. Chinese databases are also considered based on the comprehension ability of the authors. Expanding the search in other language may minimise selection bias. English databases include PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus, ProQuest and Web of Science. Chinese databases include Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, SinoMed, Index to Taiwan Periodical Literature and Airiti Library. Keywords or Medical Subject Headings terms ‘technology’, ‘sexual violence’ and ‘measure’ will be identified. Keywords may be refined to include specific types of TFSV such as ‘sexting’, ‘image-based’, ‘revenge porn’, etc. A hand search of the reference list of the included studies will be done to identify relevant papers not obtained by the search strategy.

Study selection

The screening of studies will be guided by the Population–Concept–Context (PCC) framework recommended by JBI.³⁰ Table 1 shows the inclusion and exclusion criteria using the PCC framework.

Table 1. Inclusion and exclusion criteria using Population–Concept–Context framework.

	Inclusion criteria	Exclusion criteria
Population	Studies involved anyone without limitation to sexual orientation, gender, age and ethnicity Can be targeting victims, perpetrators or bystanders of TFSVA	N/A
Concept	Studies investigated the development of measurement tools for TFSVA Studies involved but were not limited to cultural adaptation and validation of questionnaires for TFSVA	Studies described other misuse of technology without a sexual or intimate focus
Context	Studies performed in any cultural or geographical settings	N/A

TFSVAtechnology-facilitated sexual violence and abuse

Further eligibility criteria will ensure that the content of the included studies is relevant to the research question. Articles will be deemed eligible if the following inclusion criteria are met: (1) focus on any type of TFSVA (types of TFSVA include but not limited to the five dimensions of TFSVA as suggested by Henry and Powell.⁸ Examples include image-based sexual abuse, sexting and online sexual harassment); (2) measurement of any type of violence (eg, victimisation, perpetration or both types); (3) any type of empirical study (eg, quantitative study, qualitative study, mixed methods study); (4) studies published in English or Chinese and (5) peer-reviewed papers published in academic journals. In terms of exclusion criteria, studies that describe the misuse of technology without a sexual or intimate focus will be excluded from the review. The year of publication, characteristics of study participants and context of studies are not restricted.

The search strategy is summarised in online supplemental file 2. Two reviewers will use the search strategy to search in preidentified databases independently. Irrelevant studies will first be screened out and duplicates will then be removed. Titles and abstracts will be scanned briefly to exclude studies that are not evaluating targeted outcomes. All studies that pass the exclusion process will be reviewed for relevancy by scanning titles, abstracts and full texts. Finally, full-text articles will be reviewed for all included studies. The selection process will follow the recommendations in the PRISMA-ScR checklist and be mapped using the PRISMA-P chart.^{28 29}

Charting the data

The documents selected for inclusion will undergo data extraction and analysis. Data will be extracted as a team by two reviewers together for about five studies as a pilot to establish consensus. The remaining data will be extracted by one of the reviewers and confirmed by a second reviewer. A third reviewer will be consulted if there are significant discrepancies that cannot be resolved by discussion and consensus. In line with the PAGER approach,²⁸ all members of the review team will meet regularly in consensus meetings to ensure consistency and rigour in the data extraction process. The data extraction process will be guided by a data charting form presented in table 2. The form will be further refined and updated over the course of the project until all important data can be adequately extracted.

Table 2. Data charting form.

Field	Description
Authors
Year	Published year
Title of study	Full title of the article
Journal
Study design	Quantitative studies/qualitative studies/mixed methods studies
Aim of study	Research questions/aim and objectives
Study population (with sample size)	Age group: adolescents/adults Sexual orientation: heterosexual/homosexual/others Position: victims/perpetrators/bystanders
Setting	Location that the study was conducted
Type of TFSVA	Type/term used to describe TFSVA Definition of the behaviour
Measurement tool (validation or not)	Name of tool Language Psychometric indices: reliability (Cronbach’s alpha/McDonald’s omega), validity, etc
Outcome measures	Any outcomes that can be related to TFSV prevalence, impact, attitudes, perceptions, etc

TFSVAtechnology-facilitated sexual violence and abuse

Collating, summarising and reporting the results

As part of the extraction process, we will develop a patterning chart, which is described by Bradbury-Jones et al, as a way of displaying the thematic distribution across the included articles.²⁸ A narrative report will be produced to summarise the extracted data. These results will be described concerning the research question and the context of the overall study purpose. Gap identification will detect areas such as population groups and settings that lack data on the measurement of TFSVA, and if there is a paucity of data on significant outcome measures related to TFSVA. The scoping review was commenced in March 2024 and is projected to conclude in December 2024, as shown in table 3.

Table 3. Stage of review and proposed timeline.

Stage of review	Started	Completed
Review protocol development	March 2024	Yes
Preliminary pilot searches of literature	March	Yes
Data extraction tool development (stage 1)	March	Yes
Register via OSF	March	Yes
Formal searching on different databases (stage 2)	June	Yes
Screening studies by two independent reviewers	June	Yes
Piloting the study selection process	July	Yes
Formal study selection and retrieval (stage 3)	September–October	In progress
Data extraction and charting (stage 4)	October	No
Data synthesis and presentation (stage 5)	No	No

Patient and public involvement

Patients and the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this protocol.

Ethics and dissemination

Since the scoping review methodology consists of reviewing and collecting data from publicly available materials, this study does not require ethics approval. As empirical studies of TFSVA remain limited in the academic arena and there is an absence of evidence to support the development of a standardised TFSVA measurement, a scoping review is useful to map the literature and to bridge the gaps. The results of this review are expected to highlight various types of TFSVA measurements developed in different settings and populations, which will help relevant practitioners in the assessment of TFSVA. The paper will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed publication and conference presentations. This review will be the first step of a study to develop a reliable and valid measurement to assess TFSVA. Further work is required to develop measurements adapted for specific populations and tested to ensure acceptability and cultural competence.