Beach vacations do not limit the risk of sexual assault or gender-based harassment. So in Marseille, the town hall is experimenting with an alert system on Prado beach: “Safer Plage”, a free and easy-to-use mobile application. Victims or witnesses of aggression can report it in a few seconds using an emergency button: “It’s super fast, it’s marked ‘ask for help’. The person presses it, it geolocates them and it sends us an alert”explains Lisa, 22, a lifeguard.
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The application is connected to the beach first aid station and allows agents to intervene quickly: “We go there, and as it is girls who contact us, I prefer to be accompanied by girl rescuers, so they feel safer”says Lisa.
The application has already proven itself in several festivals. This first try
is produced in partnership with feminist associations. “We decided to do an action on the beaches of Marseille because it’s a place where the Marseillaises and tourists meet in the summer”develops Nathalie Teissier, municipal councilor in charge of women’s rights.
“We realized that there were a lot of women who no longer came to the beach, a lot of women who gave us feedback.”
Nathalie Teissier, delegate adviser on women’s rightsat franceinfo
“At the end of the season, there are figures which show that a lot of people have been annoyed or attacked: from that moment on, something has to be done”, she says. However, there is no question of the rescuers replacing the police: “If the harassment stops, if the person is located and we manage to solve the problem like that and it stops, that’s one thing. If it’s more serious, the municipal police are present and the national police can arrive.”
On the beach, some women have already downloaded the application, others will soon do so. “It’s great, it’s convenient for us because at least we can feel safe!”welcomes a vacationer. “Often the boys come to see us and they don’t want to let gosays another. It’s complicated if you’re all alone, you don’t know what to do and you always need help, it’s true that these are things that happen.”
“In general, when we are harassed, we change places or we are a little panicked. But it is a very good thing if people can intervene to help us.”
A vacationerat franceinfo
The device is being tested this summer only on the Prado beach, but it should be generalized on all the beaches of Marseille next summer.
In Marseille, an application makes it possible to report sexual and sexist assaults on the beaches – A report by Hugo Charpentier
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