Tech Safety Planning Conversation Starters for Anti-Violence Workers Supporting Indigenous Survivors
A Note on Language
In this toolkit, we will sometimes use the word woman/women and feminine pronouns for simplicity and to recognize the significant impact technology-facilitated violence has on women and girls. We recognize that TFGBV also impacts trans, non-binary, and Two-Spirit people. We hope that all people impacted by TFGBV will find these documents useful.
This resource contains question prompts, tech safety strategies, and document links you can use to guide your safety planning conversations with Indigenous survivors experiencing tech-facilitated gender-based violence. Additional tech safety planning strategies can be found in the Tech Safety Planning Toolkit.
Start Your Conversation by Helping Survivors Understand Tech-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TGFBV):
- Ask if the survivor is familiar with the term TFGBV and/or Digital Dating Violence.
- Determine what they know about TFGBV. This could be used as a starter to explain the different types of violence that happen through technology.
- Define violence.
Suggested Resources:
Tech Safety Considerations after Leaving a Community or Relationship. Potential Questions that Could be Asked:
- Do you have your own phone? What do you use your phone for?
- Does anyone keep you from talking to your family or friends?
- Do you share your phone with someone else or does anyone else look at your phone? Are you the owner of your phone account?
- Have you ever needed to use your phone but could not use it? Can you tell me more about what was going on?
- Does anyone know how to unlock your phone, have your passcode, or make you unlock it?
- What apps or social networks do you have an online presence on since leaving a community or relationship?
- Are your location services turned “on” on your cell phone?
- What devices do you have with you? Cell phone, tablets, or computer?
Suggested Safety Strategies:
- Turn off location-sharing permissions on your devices (video).
- If the survivor has an iPhone, consider going through Apple’s Safety Check (video).
- Set up two-factor authentication for your accounts.
- Create a list of safe people you trust who you can share your location with.
- Consider changing your phone number.
Social Media – Keeping the Privacy and Confidentiality of Residents in a Shelter and Transition House
- Have you recently updated your privacy settings?
- Does anyone know the password to your accounts?
- Do you know how to block a person or group on the social platforms you’re using?
- Are you familiar with how to report abusive content on social platforms?
Suggested Safety Strategies:
- Change the password to social media accounts and go through privacy settings to see who has permission to your account.
- You do not have to use your real name or the correct spelling of your name to set up an account. This could help keep your account from being discovered by your abuser.
- Consider changing your profile picture to one that does not include you or your children. This could keep your account from being discovered by your abuser.
- Consider going through your photos and videos and removing or hiding ones with you and or your children in them.
- Refrain from posting your location.
- Create a QR code on any document you create so that survivors can access material easily.
Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) is part of a continuum of violence that can be both online and in-person. If you or someone you know is experiencing TFGBV, you are not alone. You can use www.sheltersafe.ca to find a shelter/transition house near you to discuss options and create a safety plan. You don’t need to stay in a shelter to access free, confidential services and support.
We gratefully acknowledge Carrier Sekani Family Services and the Indigenous Shelter Advisory Committee for their support in the creation of this information sheet.