Using safe and ethical technology to prevent and respond to sexual and interpersonal violence during adolescence and young adulthood: Identifying evidence, best practices, and pathways forward—A global scoping review protocol

Background Adolescents and young adults face elevated risks of sexual and interpersonal violence (SIV) compared to adults. Technology has been used to help mitigate this issue by mapping incidents, supporting victims, and promoting behavior change to prevent re-occurrence. However, there is a risk that technology could facilitate abuse. Ensuring technology use is safe and ethical in the context of SIV is critical. Objective This protocol provides a roadmap for a scoping review to synthesize global literature on how technology has been used to address SIV among adolescents and young adults. It aims to identify evidence and strategies for enhancing the safety, privacy, and effectiveness of technologies to prevent and respond to SIV. A scoping review was chosen because the evidence in this field is still emerging and fragmented. This approach allows us to map the breadth of existing research, highlight gaps, and make recommendations on the pathways forward. Materials and methods A search strategy was developed to identify English-language studies published since 2008, the year of the emergence of smartphones in the United States, in databases such as PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Scopus. We will include qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods studies that use technology (e.g., mobile apps, websites) to address SIV among youth. This scoping review protocol was prepared following the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols (PRISMA-P), which will be adhered to during content analysis review process. Covidence, a web-based platform for systematic review management, will be used to manage screening and data extraction. Two independent reviewers will screen and extract data, with disagreements resolved by a third reviewer. Discussion The findings of the proposed scoping review have the potential to contribute to improving technology safety, data privacy, and ethical considerations in the context of reporting and tracking SIV, alongside informing future metrics, policies, guidelines, and platform designs, contributing to the creation of more secure and effective tools for SIV reporting and tracking.