On day four of our ‘Sixteen Activists or Organisations Around the Globe Fighting to End Digital Violence Against all Women and Girls’ campaign, Natasha Dixon draws on lived experience, policy expertise and 2SLGBTQIA+ rights to advance survivor-informed resources and push for structural reform in Canada’s tech and education sectors.
Natasha Dixon (she/they) is the Founder and Executive Director of the Digital Sexual Violence Support Centre (DSVSC), a Canadian non-profit that’s dedicated to supporting adults who are experiencing digital sexual violence. Natasha borrows from their lived experience of digital sexual violence and professional career in public policy analysis, to cultivate in-person and virtual spaces that bolster the promotion of survivor-informed program, policy and resource development.
After both experiencing and witnessing countless women and girls facing sextortion and the non-consensual distribution of their intimate images, from middle school through to adulthood, Natasha founded the DSVSC in 2023. As a teenager they struggle with the lack of resources on how to emotionally process digital sexual trauma and Canadian reporting mechanisms for adolescents. There was also a scarcity of gender inclusive and culturally sensitive community advocates which they could turn to for guidance and support.
Despite discovering organisations such as CyberTip.ca in adulthood, Natasha noted that there were no organisations dedicated to supporting teenagers after they turned 18. As a result, they felt it was imperative to borrow from their lived experiences to create a welcoming space for other Canadian survivors of digital sexual violence. In this interview, Natasha talks about the experience and services offered by the DSVSC, 2SLGBTQIA+ visibility, the context in Canada, toxic masculinity in the manosphere and necessary changes within policy, big-tech and education.
What motivated your decision to start the DSVSC?
I founded the Digital Sexual Violence Support Centre (DSVSC) in 2023, after experiencing and seeing countless of women and girls face sextortion and the non-consensual distribution of their intimate images (NCDII), from middle school through to adulthood. As a teenager, I found that there was a lack of resources on how to emotionally process online sexual trauma, Canadian reporting mechanisms for adolescents, and even a scarcity of gender inclusive and culturally sensitive community advocates that I could turn to for guidance and support. While I discovered organizations such as CyberTip.ca in adulthood, I noted that there were no organizations dedicated to supporting teenagers after they turned 18, and thereby found it necessary to borrow from my lived experiences to create a welcoming space for other Canadian survivors of online sexual violence.
What has your experience of starting a non-profit in the digital sexual violence space been like? Have you come across any barriers?
Since I started my career in policy research and community development through working for Canadian non-profits and community agencies, I felt quite comfortable with navigating the process of getting registered as a federal organisation and completing other business-related documents. When searching for mentorship, I came across other service providers who worked in the sexual violence prevention and intervention space, however they were quite busy and didn’t have much time to speak with me. While I noted their lack of capacity, it felt a bit frustrating to not have someone to turn to for guidance.
Otherwise, I found that securing substantial funding was a major challenge for us. In the early months of the DSVSC, I saw that major government grants were allotted on a multi-year basis, which meant that I would have to wait two-to-three years before the next funding cycle would open. I also found that national organisations with 10+ years of experience were prioritised for funding, which rendered it challenging to secure the finances needed to develop and sustain our programming. Especially when the Government of Canada announced a potential 80% decrease in women and gender equality (WAGE) funding in 2025, this announcement sent shock waves throughout the sector, leaving many of us smaller organisations having to strategise and see which programme cuts would need to be made.
What support does the DSVSC offer to survivors?
As of October 2025, we offer virtual peer support and educational resources tailored to support adults who have experienced digital sexual violence in Canada. Our peer support program functions in two streams. The first offering is group sessions, which typically occur for four-to-six weeks, with one session per week. Each session is one hour long and is supervised by our staff member who holds a Master’s in Social Work. During these sessions, there are three-to-five participants who are supported by two-to-three support workers, plus our supervisor. Some of the topics that we may cover during the groups include self-care planning, reporting your case of online sexual violence to the police, evidence collection and preservation, future planning, processing the grief of facing digital sexual trauma and more.
We also offer one-on-one virtual support for survivors who want to discuss more specific topics or have more frequent sessions. These one-on-one sessions are forty-five minutes long, and participants can select from our booking calendar which service provider they would like to meet with and then specify their topics during the sessions. We also plan on offering more in-person workshops and online webinars in 2026 to help ensure that folks who live outside of the Greater Toronto Area are able to engage with us and remain active members of our community.
How does digital violence manifest among the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Canada?
I’d say that information and research on digital sexual violence against members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Canada is not as visible compared to generalised data. However, based on my tracking of Canadian media outlets and collaborative relationships with service providers, I’d say that sextortion, “catfishing,” online sexual harassment, the non-consensual distribution of intimate images, videos and audio, remains quite prevalent in 2SLGBTQIA+ communities in Canada. More specifically, I think of smartphone apps such as Grindr where some men are experiencing both sextortion and catfishing. In these cases, there are straight people with malicious intent who are downloading dating and sex/kink related apps, that are dedicated to providing a space for 2SLGBTQIA+ folks, and then creating profiles using strangers’ or their peers’ images to build relationships with 2SLGBTQIA+ folks and then coercing, manipulating and extorting their victims for money, sex and more. I’d also say that online forms of sexual violence against 2SLGBTQIA+ community members can translate quite swiftly to in-person manifestations of sexual and physical violence. This can escalate to catcalling, sexual assault, physical assault, stalking etc.
Is there adequate visibility of 2SLGBTQIA+ voices within research and advocacy work on technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV)?
This is an excellent question! Through research of academic literature, I find that few authors’ self-disclose their queerness. While part of me wants to suggest that the visibility of queer scholars and writers in the TFGBV space remains low, it’s quite possible that they don’t include positionality statements in their articles for the sake of privacy.
On the advocacy front, there are some folks who definitely come to mind like Leah Juliett, who’s a poet, policy and community advocate for folks who’ve experienced TFGBV. Otherwise, there aren’t that many people coming to mind. Again, I want to remain mindful that it’s possible that my exposure to queer advocates in the TFGBV space is limited but I’m certain that they are doing impactful work in their communities.
What work is being carried out in Canada to address and end digital sexual violence towards women and girls?
So there are several organisations that come to mind such as Defend Dignity, Tech Safety Canada and DIY Digital Safety. These organisations predominantly conduct research and offer educational resources to inform folks about what TFGBV is. Otherwise, I’d say that the Government of Canada is privy to the issue of digital sexual violence against adult women but there has been little to no meaningful policy or program developments implemented to support the prevention and intervention of these cases. While the Canadian federal government has published fact sheets and guides to support those who are reporting digital sexual violence, there aren’t too many dedicated support systems or programs for adults that I’m aware of.
On a provincial front, I applaud the Government of British Columbia’s efforts. They acknowledge that the non-consensual distribution of intimate images is a “crisis” and they have a dedicated office to support their residents who are experiencing it. More recently, as of October 6, 2025, Niki Sharma, Attorney General for British Columbia announced an intent to raise fines for the non-consensual distribution of intimate images to $75,000. I think that this would be an excellent deterrent for perpetrators and help victims cover the costs of their talk therapy, physiotherapy, legal fees, moving fees etc.
However, when it comes to protecting children, there are more stringent regulations and programs available to girls in Canada. For example, Cybertip.ca is the leading reporting body for cases of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Through their online mechanism, children who are experiencing online sextortion and the non-consensual distribution of their intimate images can report. As well as adults who have experienced the non-consensual distribution of the intimate images when they were children can report. Depending on their investigators’ assessment of each case, they may provide access to emergency therapeutic support for the children who submit their reports.
What needs to change on a policy, platform and societal level to address digital sexual violence?
Based on my professional and lived experiences in the gender-based violence prevention sector, I believe that ending digital sexual violence requires a three-fold process.
The first aspect would involve equipping young men and masc folks with the tools, strategies and community spaces to develop and use their emotional intelligence skills. On a societal level, I think that many young men in Canada are socialised through emerging redpill, manosphere and other schools of thought that advance the notion that using one’s emotional intelligence is a sign of weakness and that domination is more meaningful than equity. From my perspective I can see how the highly visible leaders of these ideologies prey on young men’s insecurities and vulnerabilities. If men were equipped with the tools and strategies to feel safer in their identities, safer in their bodies and capable of expressing the fullness of themselves, rather than feeling forced to fit into rigid and static ideals of manhood, there would be a lessened desire for them to sexually coerce, manipulate and violate women and girls.
The second aspect requires governments to develop stringent regulations and fines for tech conglomerates who maintain a foothold in the digital space. This would feature a requirement for tech corporations to demonstrate how they’ve implemented intersectionality and accessibility-informed approaches into the safety and reporting mechanisms of the tool, software, resource or device that they’ve created. For the sake of ongoing checks and balances, those tech companies (e.g. Meta, Apple etc.) would need to provide annual reports including records of the number of reports of online sexual violence that their consumers have made, including explanations on their process for handling their reports and support in evidence collection and preservation.
The third aspect involves equipping women and girls with the tools, technologies, community advocates and related resources to understand the cautions and red flags about navigating digital spaces. This includes providing thorough education on strategies for maintaining a personal and professional profile in virtual spaces, online dating cautions, virtual sex cautions and more.
What are your hopes for ending digital violence towards women and girls and the part the DSVSC will continue to play in such a complex task?
Complementary to the societal, policy and platform-related suggestions that I provided, I can see the DSVSC working with the Government of Canada and even foreign governments to support their public consultation process by holding survivor-informed focus groups, surveys and other data collection processes to further support the development of survivor-informed public policy development.
As for the knowledge mobilisation and translation piece, I foresee that the DSVSC can help fill this gap by developing short-form and long-form resources dedicated to parents, educators, police officers and human service providers who work with women and girls to adopt a survivor-centred approach in supporting those who have been targeted for online sexual violence, and educating them for their awareness. We would also greatly welcome the opportunity to collaborate with organisations like the YWCA Canada or the Canadian Women’s Foundation to create survivor-led mentorship groups and related spaces for women and girls to relax and share space with each other in a supportive environment.
