Sexual harassment in the workplace has certainly changed over the last two decades, as we’ve moved into the digital age. Previously, most of these encounters had to take place in person and you would have verbal exchanges, such as lewd comments made by a boss or requests for sexual favors from a secretary.
It’s not that these things don’t happen now, but the rise of digital technology has simply created other ways for harassment to take place. These are often more subtle, and they also may just take different forms.
Sending unwanted pictures
For instance, someone could send unwanted explicit pictures to a co-worker through a text. They could also do it through email or on social media. Even if the two people almost never interact in person, when they’re both in the office, this type of harassment could still take place in the digital realm.
This creates a lot of concerns, even beyond the fact that harassment may be more likely now that people can do it with a bit of artificial distance. One potential issue could be that the person could say that their account got hacked and they never meant to send the message. They may also be able to delete it, depending on how it was sent and where it is stored. This can make it more difficult to gather evidence or proof of what happened, whereas things in the past may have been easier to document.
That being said, there are also some upsides to this. In many cases, digital messages are never able to be fully deleted, or they can be stored quickly by the person who received them. This may make it more likely that you can gather the evidence you need to support your claims rather easily. No matter where you are in this process, just make sure you know what rights you have.
