Women in Technology

Restricting Access to Information Online Won’t Keep Teens Safe. It Will Only Erode Democratic Rights

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Well-meaning legislative proposals to protect young people undermine a key factor in teens’ development: independence. Proposed legislation at the federal and state levels increasingly mandates parental monitoring of all kids, including even older teenagers, which undermines teenagers’ independence—something that healthcare experts say is critical for young people’s development and mental health and parents want too.

Providing teenagers with tools to protect themselves, along with options to get parental help when needed, can go much further in creating a safe environment online.

Not Helpless, Not Silenced: What to Do if You Are Experiencing or Witnessing Online Abuse

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Online abuse can feel like an enormous, insurmountable problem, but we are not helpless, and we refuse to be silent. Together we can fight back to make the internet safer, more equitable and more free.

Here’s what to do if you are facing online abuse; if you are witnessing online abuse; if you manage people who face online abuse; or you want to push the tech industry to do better.

Rape Threats, Misogynist Slurs, Sexual Harassment and Doxing: How Online Abuse Is Used to Intimidate, Discredit and Silence

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Eighty-five percent of women globally have witnessed online harassment and nearly 40 percent have experienced it directly.

Online abuse is made to feel targeted, personal, individual and organic—when in fact it’s often systemic, strategic and coordinated. Online abuse is one part of a broader spectrum of attacks—digital, physical, legal and psychological—intended to push women and nonbinary individuals offline, out of public discourse and out of their fields of expertise. Regardless of where they live and what they do, the goal is universal: to stop them from doing their jobs and shut them up.

(This article originally appears in the Winter 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

Shine Your Light: Reflections on ‘Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé’

Renaissance—Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s fifth self-directed film—is about how to shine your light, how to give others shine, and how to sit in darkness until the light comes again.

In this season of light, we have a tremendous opportunity to observe a Black woman in her prime at 42 years old making art, working at her craft, raising her children, and surrounded by a strong network.

Affirmative Action Backlash Is Coming for Your Business. Here’s What You Can Do.

Emboldened by the Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down the use of affirmative action in college admissions, conservatives are setting their sights on their next target: corporate America. As the CEO of Girls Who Code, a nonprofit dedicated to diversifying the tech industry, I worry about what this means in the fight to create a more representative and equitable workforce.

Rather than staying silent, corporations should follow the lead of companies like Microsoft and Salesforce which have both taken a stand against anti-affirmative action litigation. This is not a question of feel-good altruism—it’s good business, too.

Need a Safe, Private Abortion? Ask Charley.

On Tuesday, Sept. 12, reproductive health experts launched a new online chatbot named Charley to help abortion seekers in all 50 states find quick, accurate and confidential abortion information, tailored to their individual needs and circumstances.

Charley only asks for a user’s zip code and date of their last period to determine how far along they are in their pregnancy. Charley also makes referrals to medical and legal support services, as well as community support networks. Co-founded by former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards and the former head of Planned Parenthood’s digital department Tom Subak, Charley launched in partnership with INeedAnA.com, Plan C and the Miscarriage + Abortion (M+A) Hotline.

“There’s a lot of fear and confusion out there about how abortion is available, especially in restricted states, and there are different resources out there. But there hasn’t been a single resource that includes all the information. Charley does that,” said Elisa Wells, co-director of Plan C. “Charley walks people through their options and then directs them to the resources that are available to help them find more specific information.”

How AI Puts Elections at Risk—And the Needed Safeguards

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Next year will bring the first national campaign season in which widely accessible AI tools allow users to synthesize audio in anyone’s voice, generate photo-realistic images of anybody doing nearly anything, and power social media bot accounts with near human-level conversational abilities—and do so on a vast scale and with a reduced or negligible investment of money and time.

Voters need some level of transparency to promote safe AI use when it comes to elections.

Here’s How Companies Can Protect the Privacy of People Providing or Seeking Abortion Care

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Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Center for Democracy & Technology has released a set of best practices for companies to adopt in order to better protect the privacy and safety of people seeking, providing or otherwise supporting abortion care.

Without transparency, companies could sell data to law enforcement and civil litigants—which could help prove a person sought, received, aided or provided an abortion. The best practices call on companies to consider and closely review the types of individual user data they have access to, and minimize the collection of revealing information.