Research shows social media decisions are difficult to make after abusive relationships

New research suggests that women leaving abusive relationships are overly cautious about their use of social media, concerned about privacy following intimate partner violence.

“Women who left their partners seven or eight years ago used social media without hesitation, but those who broke up a month or two years ago had very different social media use,” said Kimberly Jackson, a professor at Western University’s school of nursing. .

Jackson’s latest research examines the decisions mothers leaving abusive relationships make about their own social media use and how they communicate with their children about online posts.

“Some women have stopped using social media altogether, some have put restrictions on use,” Jackson told CBC News. he said. “For teenagers where you couldn’t just turn off social media, there were a lot of mechanisms used to keep their kids safe and keep their lives private and confidential.”

Jackson said mothers monitor their children’s usage, asking what teens will be sharing before going live and making sure their children’s faces aren’t online.

The social media part of security planning

“There’s also a shift from surveillance when kids are younger to more open communication, where there’s a lot of talk about risks and how to share safely, how to interact safely online,” he said.

Jennifer Dunn, chief executive of the London Center for Exploited Women, said women who leave abusive relationships were being overly cautious about their use of social media.

“There’s an issue with privacy; the perpetrator of abuse shouldn’t know where they are, what they’re doing, or what their children are doing,” Dunn said. “When we do safety planning with women, we look at their access to social media and what that might look like in the future.”

She added that survivors of violence are often very careful about what they share. “Mostly, you’re sharing things and your own privacy settings may be set very high, but depending on who you know and who’s connected to your account, that could still cause an issue, so it’s really important to share accurate information about these risks.”

Jackson’s research was published in October in the Journal of Child and Family Studies.