On January 30 and 31 this year, the BaBe Association organized an international conference as part of the SURF and SOUND 2.0 project with the aim of strengthening the mechanisms of prevention and suppression of online violence against women. The conference, held in a hybrid form, brought together experts and representatives of institutions and organizations.
Ana Kordej (Ministry of Justice, Administration and Digital Transformation) emphasized the importance of harmonizing national legislation with the EU Directive on Combating Violence against Women.
Kristina Bekavac (Judicial Academy) highlighted the success of educational workshops for judicial officials. Josip Popovac (Agency for Electronic Media) identified online violence as one of the key problems of the digital age, while Anita Matijević (Ministry of Interior) warned of the growing trend of abuse of intimate content and romantic scams.
Lawyer Ines Bojić presented data from the association's counseling center, through which, in the period from March 1, 2021 to December 31, 2024, 272 people received 456 legal and psychological services. 55.9% reports of online violence were recorded through the NEON platform.
Marina Dimić Vugec (CARNET) spoke about the gender digital divide, and Ivan Ćaleta (Center for Missing and Abused Children) and Edel Beckman (PermessoNegato, Italy) shared their experiences in preventing digital violence.
The second day of this international conference presented different perspectives on combating gender-based online violence, as well as the challenges and technical aspects of the misuse of intimate photos.
Kristina Kemešić (Ministry of Justice, Administration and Digital Transformation) spoke about the legislative regulation of criminal offences related to online violence against women. Regarding the occurrence of the criminal offence of misuse of sexually explicit content recordings, she pointed out that since its introduction into the Criminal Code until 22 January 2025, 32 final judgments and 35 non-final judgments have been issued, all of which are convictions. There are currently 16 criminal cases pending.
Olga Jurasz (Centre for Protecting Women Online, The Open University, UK and independent expert of the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on Combating Technology-mediated Violence against Women and Girls) presented data from a 2023 survey on online violence in the United Kingdom, highlighting the problem of normalization of online violence and the worrying fact that young women are the least likely to report violence.
Tomás Grencho (APAV, Safer Internet Helpline, Portugal) presented the work of the SOS line and the platform for reporting online violence and presented examples of online stalking and online abuse using content generated using artificial intelligence and deepfake technology.
Milena Vasić (Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights - YUCOM, Serbia) pointed out that Serbia has not yet introduced the criminal offense of publishing intimate content without consent and stated the need to strengthen the prosecutor's capacity for high-tech crime.
Boris Radanović (STOP NCII.org and UK Safer Internet Centre, UK) pointed out that STOP NCII.org is the only free tool in the world that allows us to protect our photos preventively.
Domen Savič, Citizen D (Slovenia) spoke about hatred and misogyny on the internet and those who benefit financially from it.
Lucy Qin (Georgetown University, USA) spoke about research results and recommendations for combating the abuse of intimate content.
The project "SURF AND SOUND 2.0" is funded by the European Union from the CERD - Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values program (2021-2027) and co-financed by the Office for Cooperation with NGOs of the Government of the Republic of Croatia. It is implemented by the BaBe association in partnership with the Agency for Electronic Media and associated partners, the Judicial Academy and the Police Directorate.
