Geneva, September 25, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Drawing attention to the real-world consequences of digital abuse, 14-year-old youth advocate Tarangini Sharma has called for stronger global safeguards against abusive deepfakes and non-consensual intimate imagery during an intervention at the ongoing 63rd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.
Sharma, who is associated with Rajasthan Samgrah Kalyan Sansthan (RSKS India), addressed an Interactive Dialogue with the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, highlighting the impact of technology-facilitated gender-based violence against women and girls.
Sharma said digital violence does not remain confined to a screen and can follow women into classrooms, workplaces, homes and public life.
Welcoming the Advisory Committee’s work on technology-facilitated gender-based violence, she said the international response must move beyond recognising digital harm towards building systems capable of preventing it.
“No woman should ever have to choose between using technology and protecting her dignity, safety and life,” Sharma told the Council during her virtual intervention.
She highlighted several consequences of digital abuse, including fabricated images that can disrupt a girl’s education, doxxing that can drive women away from public life and cyberstalking that may escalate beyond the digital sphere.
Sharma also pointed to the challenges survivors face, including fragmented legal protections, slow responses from digital platforms and reporting mechanisms that can further add to their trauma.
Calling for digital safety to be built into technology from the outset, Sharma proposed survivor-centred global standards requiring safety-by-design measures from digital platforms and artificial intelligence developers.
She also called for rapid, multilingual reporting systems supported by trained human reviewers, stronger safeguards against abusive deepfakes and non-consensual intimate imagery, and independent gender-impact audits of algorithms.
Sharma urged States to establish specialised cyber-violence units, strengthen cross-border preservation of digital evidence and ensure survivors have timely access to legal, psychosocial and emergency assistance.
Putting inclusion at the centre of her intervention, she proposed a global innovation fund to support women-led organisations developing accessible safety solutions for rural women, women with disabilities and women participating in public life.
“Technology must expand women’s freedom not multiply the reach of perpetrators,” she stressed, urging the international community to translate principles into measurable action and asking whether future standards would include clear timelines and accountability indicators.
“Innovation must move forward, but women’s safety, dignity and freedom must move forward with it,” Sharma concluded.
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