Adolescent TFVAWG: A Practice Framework for Early Detection and Response

17 September 2026

Project Team:

Dr. Hannah Guy
Principle Investigator

Dr. Keely Duddin
Co-Investigator

Dr. Jennifer Norman
Contributor, CPRL

Giles Herdale
Contributor, Digital Consultant

Holly Taylor Dunn
Contributor, Consultant in Trauma Informed Research

Project Overview:

Technology is increasingly embedded in young people’s relationships, alongside new forms of violence and abuse. Technology-facilitated violence against women and girls (TFVAWG) can emerge during adolescence through behaviours that may initially appear ordinary, caring, or humorous, but can develop into harassment, coercion, image-based abuse, and other forms of harm.

This RISE-funded project developed an evidence-informed practice framework to support earlier identification and response to adolescent TFVAWG. Drawing on a rapid evidence review and interviews with practitioners across policing, education, safeguarding, healthcare, local government, and the charity sector, the project examined how technology-facilitated harms emerge, escalate, and become embedded amongst adolescents, and identified opportunities for earlier intervention.

The resulting Practice Framework for Early Detection and Response is designed to support police officers, safeguarding professionals, and other practitioners in recognising early signs of harm, understanding patterns of escalation, and identifying opportunities for intervention before harm becomes more serious.

Project Dates:

13th April 2026 – 31st August 2026

Key Findings:

The project identified four overarching findings:

Harm often hides behind normality. Many online harmful behaviours are visible long before they are recognised as abusive, often because they are interpreted as normal, expected, or even caring behaviours, both amongst the adolescents themselves and the adults in their lives. They are therefore not taken as seriously as harmful offline behaviours.
Gendered and digital cultures shape escalation. Sexual double standards, misogynistic attitudes, peer status cultures, and online environments can help normalise and reinforce harmful behaviour.
Systems are often reactive rather than preventative. When practitioners did recognise concerns, they reported barriers to early intervention, including confidence gaps, inconsistent support pathways, varying thresholds, and limited specialist provision/knowledge.
Education offers the greatest opportunity for change. Healthy relationship education, digital literacy, parent engagement, practitioner confidence, and whole-system approaches were consistently identified as important opportunities for prevention.

Practitioner interviews also highlighted emerging challenges, including AI-generated abuse, rapidly changing digital environments, and tensions between technology-restriction approaches and approaches focused on digital resilience and education.