The internet is an important part of many of our daily lives, work and activism – but how many of us actually understand what it is?

Within the arena of ‘women, sexuality and the internet’, the usual suspects of pornography, indecency, and non-consensual videography are often the first topics that come to mind. But women aren’t just subjects on the internet – they are users, too.

When most people think about women and technology, the two things may seem incongruent: a cartoon visualisation of a woman struggling to use the toaster; a joke about women drivers; female executives calling in ‘the IT guys’ to fix their computers.

The Women of Expression theme for 2013 is Women and the Internet. The development of information and communication technologies in recent decades has revolutionized the way people communicate and express their ideas.

Since 2006, cyberstalking, online harassment, image manipulation and privacy violations have increasingly become part of intimate-partner violence and sexual harassment, compromising women and girls’ safety online and offline in many countries.

Bringing together sexual rights activists, women’s groups and internet activists, the first EROTICS India workshop – organised by Point of View, APC (Association for Progressive Communications) and the Internet Democracy Project – explored the relationship between sexual rights activism, sexuality, and the Internet.