By Ogunmola Muizat
A woman posts a graduation photo online. Another shares a professional headshot while applying for jobs. Someone else uploads a simple video on TikTok or updates a WhatsApp status. For many Nigerian women, these are ordinary moments of connection and self-expression. But in the wrong hands, these same images can become weapons.
Gender based violence has entered a new frontier. It is no longer limited to physical spaces such as homes, schools, workplaces, or communities. Increasingly, violence is happening through the digital spaces where Nigerians now learn, work, build businesses, advocate, and maintain relationships.
The internet was expected to create opportunities. But for many women and girls, it has also created new ways to be targeted, controlled, humiliated, and silenced. From cyberstalking and identity manipulation to non-consensual image sharing and artificial intelligence generated abuse, technology is creating new forms of harm that can follow survivors long after the screen goes dark.
The tools may be different. The intention remains the same.
Speaking on this growing threat, Pharmacist Muizat Ogunmola of the Zabi Repro Health Initiative says artificial intelligence has made it easier for perpetrators to create harmful content without ever having physical access to their victims.
“Today, an ordinary photograph of a Nigerian woman, a graduation picture, a professional LinkedIn headshot, a TikTok video, or even a WhatsApp status, can become abuse material,” Ogunmola says. “A woman does not have to engage in risky digital behavior for a violation to occur; her face can be placed onto someone else’s body, her voice replicated, or her entire identity fabricated to create highly convincing and harmful content.”
- The impact of such abuse extends far beyond the digital space. A manipulated image may exist online, but the consequences are deeply personal. Survivors may experience anxiety, depression, isolation, fear, and a loss of confidence in their ability to safely participate in public spaces.
For a student, digital violence may mean avoiding classes or withdrawing from social activities. For a young professional, it may create fear that a fabricated image could damage her career. For an adolescent girl, the consequences may affect her education, relationships, and sense of identity.
Yet, society often responds with a familiar question: “Why did she put her picture online?”
According to Ogunmola, this question reveals a deeper misunderstanding of digital violence. “When we ask a survivor why she posted a photograph instead of asking who manipulated or distributed it, we shift responsibility from the perpetrator to the person who was harmed,” she explains. “That creates a second layer of trauma. The woman is not only dealing with the original violation; she is also being made to feel responsible for something she did not do.”
The fact that an image is artificially created does not make the harm imaginary. A fake image can create real fear. A fabricated identity can cause real humiliation. A digital attack can produce real consequences for someone’s mental health, relationships, and future.
The speed of technology also creates a difficult challenge. Harmful content can be generated within minutes, uploaded from another country, and shared thousands of times before a victim even becomes aware of it. While legal systems rely on investigation, evidence, and jurisdiction, digital harm can spread with a single click.
Nigeria has existing laws addressing cybercrime, privacy violations, and online abuse. However, rapid advances in artificial intelligence are creating new challenges for lawmakers, technology companies, law enforcement agencies, and support systems.
For Ogunmola, action must happen before digital violence becomes irreversible. “To protect the mental health, dignity, and futures of Nigerian women and girls, we need to build systems that can respond before digital violence becomes irreversible,” she says.
This requires more than stronger laws. It requires a coordinated response. Law enforcement agencies need technical capacity to investigate digital abuse. Schools and universities need to teach digital consent and online safety. Healthcare professionals and mental health support systems must recognize technology facilitated violence as a possible source of distress among young women and girls.
Technology companies also have a responsibility. Reporting systems for non-consensual intimate imagery and synthetic sexual content must be accessible, faster, and designed around the realities of survivors. Telling women to stop sharing pictures or withdraw from social media is not a solution. Digital platforms have become spaces where women build businesses, pursue careers, access education, and contribute to public conversations. Asking women to disappear because others misuse technology only transfers the burden from perpetrators to victims.
A manipulated image may be artificial. The fear it creates is not. The emotional pain is not. The damage to a person’s reputation and confidence is not.
Technology is changing what gender-based violence looks like. Nigeria must change how it responds. The measure of Nigeria’s digital progress should not only be how many people have internet access, but whether women and girls can participate online safely, confidently, and without fear of becoming targets of technology facilitated violence.
Muizat is a clinical pharmacist specializing in sexual and reproductive health and rights, focusing on grassroots health communication, advocacy, and designing community led strategies to advance equitable healthcare access.
