Regulator publishes draft guidelines on how online services should work to tackle misogyny, online abuse and other harms
Communications regulator Ofcom has published ‘A safer life online for women and girls’, a draft guidance document for tech firms that operate online services.
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The guidance was developed through workshops with a range of stakeholders, including victims and survivors of various kinds of online harm, as well as women’s advocacy groups and safety experts. These workshops helped to expand the evidence base on which the guidance is founded and provided key insights to ensure that it is practical, ambitious but achievable.
There are four key targets: online misogyny; pile-ons and online harassment, which often affects women in public life; online domestic abuse, where technology is used in a coercive or controlling way within a relationship; and intimate image abuse.
The need for intervention in these four areas is made clear by the statistics. Almost 70% of boys aged 11-14 have been exposed to online content that promotes misogyny. Nearly three-quarters of women journalists have experienced online threats and abuse. Rates of online domestic abuse are severally under-reported – 49% of survivors did not tell anyone it was happening at the time. Rates of deepfake intimate abuse are rapidly increasing, with more such images posted online in 2023 than in all previous years combined.
The Online Safety Act 2023 makes platforms such as social media, gaming services and dating apps legally responsible for protecting people in the UK from illegal content and content harmful to children. This includes harms that disproportionately affect women and girls. As regulator, Ofcom is required to hold tech companies to account in meeting these obligations.
Many companies are already proactive in this area and the guidelines provide numerous examples of good industry practice. They also identify nine steps by which tech firms can do more to improve women and girls’ safety online. These steps include better governance and accountability, proactive interventions to prevent harm, and support for women and girls in both managing their online experiences and dealing with reports of abuse.
Ofcom is now consulting on the draft guidance and invites comments by 23 May 2025. Final guidance will then be published later this year.
Dame Melanie Dawes, Chief Executive of Ofcom, says: ‘No woman should have to think twice before expressing herself online, worry about an abuser tracking her location, or face the trauma of a deepfake intimate image of herself being shared without her consent. Yet these are some of the very real online risks that women and girls face today – and many tech companies are failing to act.
‘Our practical guidance is a call to action for online services – setting a new and ambitious standard for women and girls’ online safety. There’s not only a moral imperative for tech firms to protect the interests of female users, but it also makes sound commercial sense – fostering greater trust and engagement with a significant proportion of their customer base.’
Dame Nicole Jacobs, Domestic Abuse Commissioner, adds: ‘Everyone should be free to live out their lives online without the fear that they will be abused, stalked or harassed. But far too often, victims and survivors are expected to keep themselves safe from online abuse, rather than tech companies taking steps to protect their users.
‘I’m pleased that Ofcom are stepping up to start the process of providing guidance to tech companies on how to tackle this. It’s now on these firms to implement these recommendations and ensure that perpetrators can no longer weaponise online platforms for harm. By taking meaningful practical action, not only will people be safer online, but it will demonstrate that tech companies are ready to play their part in tackling domestic abuse.’
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