What They Don't Teach in School: Addressing Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence in Canadian Educational Curricula, Policies, and Legislation


Nikita Kalwani, Western University; Christopher Dietzel, Concordia University

Technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) is on the rise among Canadian youth, with 4 in 5 Canadian undergraduate students reporting having experienced online sexual violence (Snaychuk and O’Neill, 2020). Unfortunately, TFSV is not always recognized as violent or victimizing, as public discourse and provincial/territorial legislation in Canada have often categorized TFSV-related harms under the umbrella of cyberbullying. Despite this, TFSV can have significant consequences on young people’s health and well-being, including increased social isolation, fear and psychological distress, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress symptoms (Pashang et al., 2018; Lindsay et al., 2016; Cripps and Stermac, 2018). This fall, CTV News reported that a 12-year-old boy in British Columbia died by suicide after falling victim to sexual extortion (Coyne, 2023). Amanda Todd and Rehtaeh Parsons were two other well-known cases of Canadian youth who died by suicide following TFSV victimization (Dodge, 2016). There is a growing concern about how students in Canada learn about online sexual harms and how youth are protected from such harms, particularly as it becomes easier to create, save, and share intimate images (Hadero, 2023). As technology continues to evolve, it is important to understand how TFSV manifests among young people and how formal systems, such as secondary schools and provincial/territorial governments, respond to TFSV. This presentation will present findings from our analysis of educational documents and offer recommendations for how secondary schools can better support Canadian youth by, for example, empowering young people rather than shaming them, scaring them, or taking a risk-based approach. This paper analyzed educational curricula, policies, and legislation from Canada’s provinces/territories to shed light on how educational systems nationwide identify and respond to TFSV. We also reviewed government documents (e.g., provincial anti-violence strategies), supplemental curriculum resources, and school-board-level procedures related to sexual and gender-based violence, cyberbullying, and digital citizenship policies. We found that TFSV-related concepts are insufficiently addressed in Canadian schools. Within educational curricula, very few provinces/territories recognize that sexual violence can occur online, include content on TFSV-specific online behaviours, or discuss legal consequences of online behaviour. Three provinces and territories—Ontario, British Columbia, and Yukon (which uses BC’s curriculum)—provide students with the most comprehensive understanding of TFSV. We also found that TFSV is rarely addressed within the context of intersectionality and is primarily addressed through anti-bullying provisions in educational legislation. To better support TFSV education, prevention, and response, we argue that secondary schools in Canada should include specific references to TFSV in their educational curricula, policies, and legislation. While Ontario, British Columbia, and Yukon are the most thorough in addressing TFSV, there are gaps in their approaches that prevent their respective curricula from being comprehensive. Additionally, we argue that the language used to refer to TFSV-related behaviours in curricula and legislation often does not identify these behaviours as violence. For example, using the term cyberbullying to describe TFSV-related behaviours can minimize the harms experienced by youth and create barriers to accessing supports, including legal or policy supports related to sexual violence. TFSV does not impact everyone in the same way. Youth of historically marginalized races, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations are significantly more likely to experience TFSV (e.g., Reyns et al., 2012; Statistics Canada, 2023). Provinces/territories must consider how systemic oppression and power dynamics can contribute to TFSV. We argue that an intersectional approach to TFSV is thus necessary to mitigate systemic harms and promote the safety of diverse populations. Schools must teach students that sexual violence can occur online, inform them about the online and offline impacts of TFSV, and educate them about harms, legal consequences, and supports related to TFSV. Empowering students, rather than scaring them, shaming them, or taking a risk-based approach to technology, can better help young people identify and address TFSV at school, online, and in their everyday lives. Moreover, schools must also include information on how power, intersectionality, and intersecting forms of oppression factor into students’ experiences with TFSV. Overall, in this presentation, we argue that urgent attention is required to address TFSV in secondary schools across Canada, and effective responses at an institutional level must recognize the complexities and systemic nature of this problem.

This paper will be presented at the following session: