One in seven Australians have used technology to sexually harass someone in the workplace, most commonly in large, male-dominated offices.

According to a new report by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS), led by Monash University Associate Professor of Criminology Asher Flynn, found that about 15 per cent of people surveyed admitted to sexually harassing a colleague in the workplace through technology such as email or social media.

The report defines tech-facilitated workplace sexual harassment as involving “unwelcome and / or threatening sexual conduct using mobile, online and other digital technologies in a workplace context”, and could involve making unwanted sexual advances, sexually explicit communications or relational pursuit within and beyond the physical location of the workplace, during or after business hours.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 26 per cent of women who experienced sexual harassment did so at work, and 57 per cent were subject to it electronically.

ANROWS CEO Tessa Boyd-Caine said that while technology has delivered huge benefits in the workplace, the associated risks it brings have not yet been addressed.

“This research shows that we haven’t kept up with the way technology can also be driving sexual harassment at work,” Boyd-Caine told the ABC.

“We haven’t understood what technology-facilitated workplace sexual harassment looks like, and we certainly haven’t got the policy, the procedures and the cultures in place to keep people safe at work through the use of technology.’

The report found that this form of workplace harassment is “omnipresent and boundary-less”.

“If you’re being sexually harassed through technologies, you could be sitting at home on the couch watching the television and you could get an email or a message from someone,” Flynn told the ABC.

“And it’s the feeling that they’re always present that really impacts significantly on the victims.”

Gendered harassment

The report involved a national survey of more than 3,300 Australian adults, along with 20 interviews with industry stakeholders and focus groups with young adults.

It found that one in seven of the people surveyed had engaged in tech-facilitated workplace sexual harassment.

Men were far more likely to be perpetrators than women, with 24 per cent of men surveyed admitting to engaging in it and 6.9 per cent of women doing so.

Of those who had participated in the harassment, nearly a third said they did so to “frighten” the victim or to “humiliate them”, and more than a quarter wanted to “express their anger” towards them.

Just over half of the perpetrators said they “thought the person was okay with it”, 44 per cent said they “thought the person would be flattered” and 40 per cent wanted to pursue a relationship with them.

Tech-based sexual harassment was found to be more common in larger workplaces, with 42 per cent of reported cases, while a quarter took place in small businesses.

What needs to change

The report found a range of actions and policies are needed across the private sector, government and workplaces to address this, with a clear definition of this being the starting point.

Much of the reported harassment took place over shared workplace technology, and tech departments need to do more to ensure safety on these platforms, the report found.

“There is a pressing need to focus on ‘safety by design’ in the development of workplace technologies and include these considerations within workplace policies to reiterate a culture of what is and is not appropriate or acceptable workplace conduct,” the report said.

Tech firms should also use automated and other AI tools to detect and intervene in potentially harassing communications, the report found.

The report authors also said there is a need for greater awareness and clarity of what constitutes technology-based workplace sexual harassment, and improved clarity around internal workplace policies for preventing and responding to it.