Two agents of the Civil Guard track computer crimes committed through the Internet.LUIS MAGÁN
Advances in information technology have changed the habits of citizens and, with it, the type of crimes that are committed.
In the last year, the so-called digital violence - harassment carried out through social networks and instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp or Telegram - has increased by 17.5%, according to figures from the Criminality Statistical System (SEC), dependent of the Ministry of the Interior.
In a parliamentary response to EH Bildu deputy Jon Iñarritu, the Government details that of the 23,972 complaints received by the Security Forces in 2020 for acts of these characteristics, the following year rose to 28,169.
Young people and women are the ones who suffer the most from this type of crime, which ranges from threats and extortion to revealing secrets and gender violence.
In its response, the Government points out that, as the last Report of the State Attorney General's Office already collected, this type of infraction shows "an ascending line", motivated in part by the strong mobility restrictions that were implemented in 2020 and 2021 for try to stop the covid pandemic and that caused a “greater exposure” of citizens on the internet, mainly young people.
According to the statistics of the Interior ―which collects data from the National Police, Civil Guard, Navarra Regional Police and local police― the most reported type of digital violence was threats, which went from 11,340 to 13,860 in just one year, which represents a increase of more than 22%.
More information
Cybercrimes are already 10% of known criminal offenses
However, the crime in which the percentage increase has been more pronounced has been that of extortion, which has gone from 1,160 to 2,063, with nearly a 78% increase.
Last year, cases of digital violence related to illegal computer access (2,199), mistreatment in the family (2,084), coercion (1,998), disclosure of secrets (1,897) and insults (1,037).
In its response, the Government highlights the intense preventive activity that the Security Forces carry out in digital environments, with "protection operations" in P2P file-sharing networks and the monitoring in forums and chats of the so-called "dark internet" or
dark internet.
web
, used for all kinds of cybercrimes.
Lieutenant Daniel Moreno, head of the Central Women-Minors Team (Emume) of the Civil Guard, admits that these figures do not fully reflect the phenomenon.
"Those are the facts that we are aware of because there are complaints, but there are still people who do not go to the police out of fear, shame or simply because they do not know that what they have suffered is a crime."
A lack of knowledge, he adds, that also reaches the authors of the acts: “Many are not aware that, for example, sharing their images with third parties without the consent of a person is also a type of violence with criminal consequences.”
Lieutenant Nieto, who participates in talks on the Master Plan in educational centers to prevent minors and young people from being victims of any criminal act, believes, however,
For Salvador Samper, president of the Spanish Observatory of Computer Crimes (OEDI, a non-profit association dedicated to caring for victims of digital attacks), the increase in figures is the result, on the one hand, of the improvement in speed in information technology, but also what he qualifies as "legal loopholes" to pursue this type of incident and that generate spaces of impunity.
“The pandemic has been the final accelerator,” adds Samper, whose team collaborates in the extraction of electronic evidence equipment against digital attackers.
A recent study by the observatory, carried out with 123 victims of digital gender violence, reveals that 45% suffered it through the WhatsApp application;
28% from the social network Facebook and 19% from Instagram, another social network.
In about 70% of the cases, this harassment was daily and in most cases (in 69%) it was perpetrated by the ex-partner, although in a high percentage, close to 17%, the perpetrator was unknown.
For the president of the observatory, digital violence can sometimes be "equal to or more lethal than physical violence" due to its psychological consequences and what these can lead to.
Teresa was a victim of gender-based violence and now, from Zaragoza's Somos Más association, she helps other women file complaints.
In her case, she remembers her ex-partner reading her mobile phone messages and constantly asking her where she was, but she admits that advances in technology have increased such non-physical violence.
“Many of the women who come to us receive threats on their WhatsApp that the author immediately deletes.
That creates great anguish for them because they think they will not be able to show what they are doing to him.”
In such a situation, Teresa advises going immediately to report it because the police can retrieve those messages from the memories of their devices and use them as evidence.
She also recommends not blocking authors for precisely
to be able to collect evidence against them and demonstrate that this digital violence is something reiterated.
Teresa points out that the victims of digital gender violence do not have a defined profile: "There is just as much an executive as there is a university professor or someone without studies."
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