The Government has published its strategy to build a safer society for women and girls, structured around prevention, perpetration, and support for victims, and setting out its ambition to halve VAWG over the next nine years. The Centre for Protecting Women Online welcomes the recognition that online abuse and tech-facilitated violence form part of women’s lived experiences, reflecting our lived reality that digital spaces are central to how violence against women and girls begins, escalates, and is sustained.
As we continue to analyse the strategy and accompanying Action Plan, the Centre notes that tech-facilitated VAWG is referenced but risks being treated as a peripheral issue. Digital abuse cuts across multiple forms of VAWG and affects women and girls of all ages, yet the strategy frequently focuses on young people, with limited attention to adult women, including racialised and minoritised communities who face compounded harms and barriers in reporting or seeking support. The structural drivers that allow online abuse to persist, such as misogyny, racism, and intersectional vulnerabilities, are not fully explored, leaving gaps in how the strategy addresses prevention and protection for all women.
The strategy continues to rely on tech platforms to prevent and respond to online abuse. This mirrors the limitations of the Online Safety Act, placing too much responsibility on companies’ goodwill rather than creating robust, independent accountability or proactive prevention measures. Without stronger regulatory enforcement, women and girls remain exposed to ongoing harm online.
Implementation must also be consistent with the UK’s obligations under the Istanbul Convention and CEDAW, which require proactive, coordinated action to prevent violence, protect victims, and address both online and offline drivers of abuse.
Leyla Buran, Research Fellow in Policy and Practice at the Centre for Protecting Women Online, said:
“From an online safety perspective, the key question is whether the Strategy fully reflects the role digital spaces and technologies play in enabling and sustaining abuse. Our initial reading suggests there are important commitments, but also significant gaps, particularly around adult (women) experiences and those of racialised and minoritised communities, whose vulnerabilities are compounded online. Further clarity is needed on how tech-facilitated harms are embedded across all types of VAWG.”
Drawing on the Centre’s research and expertise, the Centre will continue to examine the strategy’s measures on prevention, perpetrator accountability, and victim support through the lens of tackling tech-facilitated violence. We will also assess whether the stated ambition to halve VAWG is realistic given the actions outlined, as the strategy moves into implementation.
The Centre for Protecting Women Online stands ready to work with Government, regulators, and partners to ensure the strategy translates into real prevention and protection for women and girls online.
About the Centre for Protecting Women Online
The Centre for Protecting Women Online is focused on understanding and addressing challenges to women’s safety online, working collaboratively across sectors to inform research, organisational practice and government decision making.
The Centre’s aim is to reduce online harms suffered by women and girls, promote pro-social behaviours online and help build better and more responsible tech and software.
The Centre is funded by a £7.7 million grant from Research England.
