Cyber Violence Soars in Quintana Roo

Cancún, Quintana Roo — Digital violence against women and members of the LGBTTTI community continues to increase in Quintana Roo; however, initiatives to confront it have also been strengthened. This was stated by Natalia Tavizón, a member of the collective Derechos, Autonomías y Sexualidades (DAS Cancún), during the presentation of the winning short films from the ProyectaDAS contest.

"In Quintana Roo, we occupy third place nationally in the incidence of digital violence. 17.4 percent of internet users have been victims of cyberbullying; that is to say, one in every six people connected in the state has experienced some type of online aggression," she elaborated.

Among the most common forms are contact through fake profiles (36 percent), offensive messages (32 percent), unsolicited insinuations or proposals (29 percent), and the threat of disseminating intimate content for extortion (43 percent). She even highlighted that there is already a sentence for this crime in the municipality of José María Morelos.

Figures from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) reinforce the landscape: nationally, 21 percent of people aged 12 or over with internet access have faced cyber harassment, which is equivalent to approximately 18.9 million victims.

The platforms where these cases are most frequently registered are WhatsApp, with 39.8 percent, and Facebook, with 39.7 percent. The most frequent types of aggression include offensive messages (34 percent) and calls with violent or hostile content (22.6 percent).

She recalled that digital violence can be directed at any user of electronic devices or social networks and comprises actions such as disseminating, manipulating, or threatening to divulge images without consent. All these acts are sanctioned by the General Law on Women's Access to a Life Free of Violence and its corresponding state legislation.

As part of the efforts to make this problem visible and combat it, DAS Cancún carried out a new edition of the feminist short film contest ProyectaDAS, whose results were announced recently. One of the fundamental purposes of the project has been to decentralize film production from the center of the country, an objective that in this edition—thanks to important alliances such as the one established with Estudios Churubusco—was realized.

In total, 30 short films were received, a figure lower than the 50 from the previous year, but with a notable increase in participation from the Southeast and, especially, from Quintana Roo, something that had not been achieved in previous editions.