'Just Get Offline': Girls’ and Young Women’s Experiences of Online Gender-Based Violence on Social Media Platforms

This thesis is an exploratory study of girls’ and young women’s experiences of online gender-based violence (OGBV) in Australia. To gain a deeper understanding of these behaviours, I situate OGBV on Kelly’s continuum of sexual violence (1988). This theoretical framework is crucial, given my research is guided by the voices and experiences of victim-survivors. Overall, this study contributes to knowledge in the relatively unknown area of girls’ and young women’s experiences of OGBV. Further, the complexity of these behaviours is critically analysed in the context of social media use, which sheds light on how OGBV is understood, identified and experienced.