Technology: Friend or Foe for Women of Myanmar “Young women and girls are targeted by labor brokers for human trafficking as a result of the country’s economic collapse and lack of jobs after the military coup. Labor brokers are persuading young women with the incentive of well-paid jobs in other countries. The majority of cases are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation.” (KII_02, a male CSO leader) The interviewees talked about how ICTs enable sexual predators and pedophiles to harm or exploit women and children because new technical innovations facilitate the ease of access to millions of sexually explicit materials. One of the biggest concerns of several interviewees was the dangers of online dating where young women and girls can be tricked or forced into performing sex acts for photos and videos that can be used against them. One female interviewee underlined the important role of guardians in regulating their children’s screen time and filtering the content they access. She also made a strong connection between online safety risks and the level of digital literacy among young women. Two female interviewees mentioned that false rumors, body negativity and sexualized images have been proliferating in cyberspace in Myanmar for a long time. Since social media is highly popular among young women and adolescent girls in Myanmar, they tend to be at a higher risk of exposure to sexualization on these platforms. The internalization of sexualization can create a toxic culture in which women are first and foremost judged on their physical attractiveness and sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics. One of the interviewees worried, “Many people tend to post only photos with seemingly perfect lives, faces and bodies, which may not be representative of their everyday appearance and reality. These can create a toxic culture of comparison and competition, where individuals compare their existence to others and strive to meet unrealistic beauty standards. This can contribute to body dissatisfaction and low self-esteem, especially among adolescent girls and even lead to mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.” Both cis- and transgender women experience high levels of online harassment which cause them mental distress and fear. Online harassment is typically gendered or sexualized, and the abusers are mostly anonymous strangers. One interviewee who experienced online harassment had the abusers attacking their disability. The interviewees argued that women are more likely to face sexual harassment online if they identified as LGBT+, 44