New statistics released by the Executive Office have revealed almost half (49%) of 16-year-old girls in NI feel unsafe to use public transport alone and almost a fifth experienced online violence.
The figures were released in the ‘Ending Violence Against Women and Girls: Experiences and attitudes off 16-year-olds in Northern Ireland in 2024’ report which was published on Thursday.
It presents data relating to young people’s personal experiences of gender-based violence, location of violence, ease of access to help and support, who they would report gender-based violence to if they were a victim, barriers to reporting, likelihood of experiencing gender-based violence, perceptions of safety in certain locations, and positive relationships.
The report found that the most common place for young women to feel unsafe was on public transport with 49% of girls surveyed saying they felt unsafe to use public transport alone.
It also revealed that in the last year, almost a fifth of 16-year-olds experienced online violence (19%).
Psychological violence was experienced by 18% of respondents.
Just over one in ten had experienced sexual violence (11%) and 7% had experienced physical violence.
Significantly more girls than boys reported experiencing violence in the last year, with 26% of girls compared to 9% of boys.
Of those respondents experiencing violent acts or behaviour in the last year, the most common places where they occurred were online (42%), at school (35%) and a public outdoor space (26%).
More girls than boys believed it would be difficult to get help and support if they were a victim of gender-based violence – 31% and 24% respectively.
The most common barrier that these young women felt would stop young people from reporting violence was “worry that they would not be believed” (75%), followed by “concern that it might make the situation worse” (73%).
Over half of all respondents (51%) thought that, compared with two years ago, it was more likely that women and girls in Northern Ireland will become victims of gender-based violence online.