Whangarei woman Hannah Gough says it is not uncommon to receive regular online abuse from people she does not know - and she's not alone. Photo / John Stone
Whangarei woman Hannah Gough says it is not uncommon to receive regular online abuse from people she does not know - and she's not alone. Photo / John Stone
Northland woman Hannah Gough has been sexually harassed online, received abusive comments about her weight and has even received a death threat.
The Whangarei-based plus-size model, known as Miss Glamour LaRue, is all about promoting being healthy at any weight.
She has a public Facebook page and Instagram account, andsaid she often receives messages and comments from people she doesn't know who body-shame her.
"I get private messages from men sexually harassing me and a lot of body-shaming comments. Because I'm about being healthy at any size and I powerlift, I get a lot of comments saying 'you're not curvy, you're just fat', 'you're not healthy, that is obesity'," she said.
But the 27-year-old is not alone. A study by Norton through Symantec revealed that 72 per cent of New Zealand women under the age of 30 have experienced some form of online harassment while 52 per cent of all Kiwi women have been targeted.
Ms Gough said she is not surprised by the statistics and knows other women who have public social media pages who also receive similar abuse.
She said she is lucky to have a good support system behind her but said online harassment could have detrimental effects on women who were emotionally vulnerable.
"That's what is the majorly scary thing. That's why we have women with eating disorders, body issues, depression and in the worst case - suicide. It's not okay, we need to stop it," she said.
The survey showed 19 per cent of women identified their physical appearance as being singled out in an attack, followed by weight (16 per cent) and gender (10 per cent).
It also showed the harassment encountered by women is frequently of a sexual nature.
One in 10 have experienced graphic sexual harassment, rising to nearly one infive for women under 30.
"I receive many [messages] that are very graphic in detail and it's just so hard. It's scary because you would think basic human instinct would tell you not to send that," said Ms Gough.
Savvy Covergirl Hannah Gough.
She receives regular abusive comments and messages online but in the past two months it has spiked. She said the comments were from both males and females. "It's scary. Girls go attacking each other, we need to stop the hate," she said.
Despite so many New Zealand women identifying online harassment, 39 per cent will choose to ignore it and only 9 per cent report perpetrators of the online harassment to police, according to the survey.
Ms Gough said at one stage she received a death threat which she reported to police. She said with the other messages she either deleted them or reported them to Facebook or Instagram.
"It makes me upset for me and then I realise I have awesome support around me. It also makes me angry," she said.
She encourages others who are being harassed online to talk about it and try not to take it too personally.
Lee Chisholm, Netsafe training and education specialist, said NetSafe routinely receives reports from New Zealanders regarding online harassment and abuse, much of which is relentless and often devastating for those targeted.
"We receive a higher percentage of reports of personal harm from females than males.
Anyone who is harassed or abused online needs positive support as well as practical expertise - which can be accessed through NetSafe," said Mr Chisholm.
