16 Days of Activism 2025: From Digital Abuse to Real-World Safety
Every year, from 25 November to 10 December, the global community marks the annual campaign 16 Days of Activism - a powerful call to eliminate violence against women and girls (VAWG). This year’s theme, set by UN Women, is to “End Digital Violence against All Women and Girls”.
For imabi, this presents a pivotal moment: blending our safeguarding mission with the pressing realities of the digital realm and ensuring that safety is truly everywhere - in person, online, in transit, in education, or at work.
Digital Violence: The Hidden Crisis We Can’t Ignore
Violence against women and girls remains one of the most widespread human-rights violations. What has changed in recent years, however, is the speed, reach and severity of abuse taking place online.
According to global insight, between 16% and 58% of women have experienced online or technology-facilitated abuse - ranging from harassment and stalking to impersonation, threats, image-based abuse and exploitation.
Digital platforms have become new arenas for old behaviours:
harassment
coercive control
misogyny
threats and intimidation
abuse that easily spills into physical spaces
As UN Women stresses, digital violence “mirrors and amplifies offline violence,” reinforcing gender inequality and shaping women’s participation in public life, work, education and community spaces.
Yet most digital violence goes unreported, unaddressed, and too often minimised.
This year's theme asks us to confront that reality head-on as there is #NoExcuse for online abuse.
How imabi is Responding
In our work with communities, councils, BIDs, transport providers, workplaces, schools and universities, we see first-hand the link between digital safety and real-world safety.
Online harassment affects:
how women feel travelling at night
how young people feel online and at school
how safe frontline workers feel after incidents
how confident people feel navigating public spaces
how secure staff feel at work
how communities respond to threats and misinformation
Online harm isn’t just virtual - it is personal, physical, and emotional.
imabi’s 2025 Campaign Framework: STAT • FACT • ACT
To ensure every message is clear, credible and actionable, imabi has adopted a structured daily framework for this year’s campaign:
📊 STAT
A sharp, evidence-aligned statistic that highlights the scale or urgency of a safety issue.
ℹ️ FACT
Context and human impact behind each number — what it means in real life for women, girls, students, staff or communities.
🟧 ACT
A practical action or pledge imabi is taking and a clear invitation for partners, organisations or communities to do the same.
This approach ensures that every message:
begins with evidence
expands into understanding
and ends with meaningful action
It allows partners councils, transport networks, schools, businesses and community groups to easily align their communication with ours, creating a unified, system-wide response to digital and physical harm.
STAT • FACT • ACT framework reflects imabi’s core belief:
Awareness matters BUT action is what keeps people safe
From Digital Harm to Community Action
As part of our campaign, imabi is delivering a series of actions across Travel Guardian, Connect, Inspire, Pro and Community CIC to address digital violence at every level of society.
1. Launching imabi Travel Guardian in Torbay
A milestone for the Torbay region and for the campaign.The launch demonstrates what localised, real-time, digital safety support can look like when a community takes digital violence seriously. More information to follow in the near future.
2. Expanding gender-based harm support
Women and girls face the highest levels of online harassment. Across our platforms, we are enhancing guidance, resources and routes to trusted support.
3. Tackling workplace online harassment
Through imabi Pro, we are helping organisations recognise and address online bullying, intimidation and digital misconduct, aligned with the Worker Protection Act.
4. Protecting frontline workers
Online hostility towards public-facing staff continues to rise. We are working with transport providers, businesses and community partners to support safer reporting and awareness.
5. Strengthening education safeguarding
Through imabi Inspire, we are providing resources on cyberbullying, coercion, grooming, digital safety and resilience, supporting students, staff and families.
6. Building connected safety systems
imabi Connect empowers councils and community partners to share verified information, raise awareness, respond quickly and offer consistent routes to support.
What You Can Do During the 16 Days
Whether you're a local authority, BID, school, university, transport operator, business, charity or individual:
Follow, share and amplify the campaign
Every STAT • FACT • ACT post can help someone understand, reflect or act
Encourage your organisation to adopt digital safety tools
Many don’t realise how much digital harm affects their people until they measure it
Start conversations about digital abuse in your community, classroom or team
Silence is violence, which allows harm to thrive - conversation disrupts it
Be a digital ally
Challenge harmful behaviour, call out abuse, report threats, support those targeted.
Use imabi’s tools to support your community.
Each platform - Travel Guardian, Connect, Inspire, Pro - offers a practical route to improve safety and wellbeing
