If you are a woman or girl using the Internet, there is a 75% chance you have been the victim of online violence at least once, based exclusively on your gender. Women’s experiences of online violence can range from casual sexism and misogyny, graphic rape threats, circulation of revenge porn, death, and everything in between. This dissertation aims to make sense of how underlying social norms and the Continuum of Sexual Violence have made online violence against women and girls (OVAWG) ubiquitous. It explores and evaluates the human rights instruments and mechanisms available to protect women and girls online, casting a critical eye on their effectiveness and utility. Figures indicate that OVAWG is a ‘cyber-epidemic’ with little understanding of how to make it stop. A fundamental Human Rights issue, online violence is impacting women and girls globally and is a border reflection of how the patriarchy and its law enforcement branch of misogyny mirrors and controls everyday life offline. We must position OVAWG not as a new form of violence against women and girls but as an extension of offline violence women and girls experience; in essence, the Internet is a new platform for the patriarchy. This comprehensive analysis of OVAWG draws on secondary research, contributing to a relatively new body of research efforts that highlight the harm OVAWG causes.