The rapidly evolving digital world has become a kind of “Wild West,” amid a torrent of new crime trends that police, government officials and business leaders warn are increasingly putting women and girls at risk.
New technology has brought a string of troubling new offences, advocates highlighted in a December campaign against gender-based violence in the Cayman Islands.
From tracking devices and smartphone apps that have made digital stalking more common to the casual sharing of explicit images online, authorities say they are struggling to keep pace with a growing range of threats.
While the emerging offences affect both genders, police and advocates say women and girls are disproportionately impacted by digital abuse.
Speaking as Cayman observed the annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign in November, officials warned that far greater awareness is needed locally about troubling new behaviours taking place online.
Mahreen Nabi, vice president of the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Grand Cayman, said the United Nations-led campaign focused this year on online abuse.
“A lot of work has been done around physical abuse, but the online space is still a bit of a wild wild west for a lot of reasons,” she said.
Nabi added that many jurisdictions, including Cayman, still have significant work to do to better protect people online.
The 16-day campaign served as a platform for authorities to highlight how gender-based violence is increasingly moving from physical spaces into digital environments.
The range of threats
Royal Cayman Islands Police Service Sergeant Elizabeth Owens said the spectrum of digital threats facing people in Cayman is broad and often interconnected, ranging from harassment and stalking to grooming and image-based abuse.
She said officers regularly deal with online harassment and cyberstalking, including cases where individuals are tracked through phones, tags in vehicles or shared devices without consent.
Police are also seeing a rise in ‘revenge porn’, where intimate images shared consensually within a relationship are later used to threaten, coerce or blackmail a former partner.
Other offences include online harassment and grooming affecting both adults and children, digital dating abuse involving controlling or coercive behaviour, and cases where access to phones, email or social media accounts is monitored or restricted.
“All of that is coercive and controlling behaviour,” she said.
While not all cases involve new technology, she said emerging tools, including AI-generated content, are expanding the ways abuse can occur.
Police have also raised concerns about the toll digital abuse can take on young people’s mental health.
Detective Superintendent Richard Barrow said officers are seeing a worrying link between online activity and self-harming among young people.
Nabi said many women who experience or witness online abuse respond by changing how they behave digitally, limiting participation or avoiding certain platforms altogether. While that reflects growing awareness of risk, she warned it can also mean women retreat from spaces where they should feel free to engage.
“Everybody should feel comfortable, whether that’s the physical space or the online space and we shouldn’t have violence or harassment driving behavioural decisions,” she said.
Is legislation needed?
Police acknowledge that the law has not kept pace with changes in modern society, especially recent transformations in technology.
The bulk of sexual offences and gender violence offences are covered in the Penal Code.
Over the last decade or so, multiple laws, including the Bill of Rights, domestic violence legislation, data protection and anti-stalking laws, have all impacted national policies and social norms.
While the evolution of digital abuse and artificial intelligence creates challenges in prosecuting offenders and managing threats, police stress that does not mean incidents that are reported go uninvestigated.
Owens said RCIPS rely on a range of existing offences, including misuse of ICT networks, (online communications) harassment, stalking and blackmail – to pursue offenders.
She said the breadth of existing legislation allows police to intervene across a wide range of online behaviours, even if the language of the law does not always reflect the specific threat, risk or harm identified or reported.
She said offences that may appear novel or outdated, such as ‘insulting the modesty of a woman’ or ‘idle and disorderly conduct’, are often used to support prosecutions in court, in the absence of more updated laws.
Prevention over cure
However, officers emphasised that enforcement alone is not enough to address online threats and risks. Police repeatedly stressed early reporting, education and awareness alongside cultural change are key tools in prevention.
“Prevention is really better than cure. Problems don’t go away. They escalate,” Owens said.
Detective Chief Inspector Lorraine Roberts said underreporting remains one of the biggest challenges, particularly in cases involving intimate images or online humiliation.
“If we don’t have that intelligence, we don’t know who Cayman’s most high-harm offenders are,” Roberts stressed.
If someone is experiencing abuse, it is in their best interest to come forward.
She said, “We will respond to you without judgement, without bias and with confidentiality at the forefront of our response.
“We want people to come forward and tell us what is happening to them.”
Even if reporting does not lead to a criminal complaint or convictions, it helps police identify patterns and focus on repeat offenders.
“It can curb the problem and it can prevent individuals becoming future victims,” Roberts said.
Officials also stressed that responsibility does not rest solely with victims or law enforcement.
Karlene Bramwell, senior policy adviser on gender diversity and equality, urged members of the public to challenge abusive behaviour when they see it.
“If you wouldn’t want the thing to be done to you, then don’t be silent about it,” she said, calling on friends, colleagues and online communities to reject and call out harmful conduct.
Legislation approaches in other countries
United Kingdom:
In 2025, the UK government announced plans to make creating and sharing sexually explicit AI-generated images without consent a specific criminal offence. The government will introduce a new offence meaning perpetrators could be charged for both creating and sharing these images with penalties of up to two years behind bars. The government also introduced new offences to combat revenge porn and coercive behaviours.
Australia:
Australia has introduced new offences with significant jail time. The Criminal Code Amendment (Deepfake Sexual Material) Bill 2024 made it an offence to transmit sexually explicit material that depicts someone without their consent, including AI-generated content. Penalties include several years in prison for those who create or share such material.
United States:
The TAKE IT DOWN Act requires digital platforms to remove non-consensual intimate imagery, including deepfakes, once notified. Several states have also passed laws specifically criminalising distribution of pornographic deepfakes, with enhanced penalties for material involving minors.
South Korea:
South Korea has some of the most advanced legislation on this issue. The Asian country criminalises not only the production and distribution of sexually explicit deepfakes but also the possession and viewing of such content, with imprisonment and fines for offenders.
- Additional reporting by Philipp Richter
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