I need the ERA because… online abuse can lead to offline harm

Equality Now’s analysis shows that the ERA could play a critical role in addressing online sexual exploitation and abuse by:

• Establishing sex equality as a constitutional mandate, strengthening the legal basis for addressing gender-based violence, including OSEA.
• Expanding Congress’s authority to pass comprehensive federal laws addressing gender-based discrimination and violence, including harms that occur online.
• Supporting equality-by-design and safety-by-design approaches, requiring technology platforms to integrate prevention and equality principles into product design and policies.
• Enabling stronger regulation of technology companies whose platforms facilitate gender-based exploitation and abuse.
• Opening pathways to civil remedies so survivors of OSEA can seek meaningful access to justice.
• Requiring courts to apply strict scrutiny to laws or practices that discriminate on the basis of sex, strengthening protections against discriminatory responses to online abuse.