Why technology is a powerful tool against coercive control
“In the wrong hands, technology can be used to instill fear but in the right hands, it’s a shield to defend and protect. A safeguard for systems and a tool to track perpetrators,” says Sally Spicer.
On There’s No Place Like Home, Angela MacMillan, group customer advocate at CommBank, shares that something as simple as having a dedicated phone number to call where you can speak with a trauma-informed specialist at CommBank Next Chapter is an impactful option for victim-survivors of coercive control. “You can call and have a discussion with someone about the situation you’re in and the help that you might need,” she says.
But technology can also act as an alert system. “We had a customer who reached out to the Next Chapter team in 2019. She had locked down her social media, changed phone numbers, moved addresses. She did all the right things but she was continuing to receive contact from her perpetrator via a banking platform,” explains MacMillan.
By sending low-value transactions into the customer’s account, he was able to share “horrific” messages through the transaction description field. “We undertook some pretty quick research and found that, based on our analysis, there’d been about 8000 instances of this in the preceding three months.”
CommBank took action, updating the terms and conditions of digital banking and blocking a long list of words – this has now prevented more than a million harmful transactions from going through in the past five years.
How financial security helps facilitate change
“Escaping an abusive partner is not just difficult, it’s expensive. Moving costs, rent, child care, lawyers, it all adds up, especially if you’ve already had your money taken or controlled,” says Spicer.
In There’s No Place Like Home, Loren Katafono, the New South Wales team lead for Good Shepherd at the Financial Independence Hub, shares that a lack of financial stability is often a barrier for people seeking to leave when experiencing coercive control.
Good Shepherd’s Financial Independence Hub offers “a team of case workers, financial counsellors, therapeutic workers, as well as an interest-free loan,” she shares. And one of the key intentions with these services is to help people change their mindsets about money. “They’re kind of rewiring themselves internally to look at money from a positive or proactive mindset that’s not fear based,” she says.
