CPWO responds to the Public Accounts Committee consultation on tackling violence against women and girls

This consultation gave relevant stakeholders, including the Centre for Protecting Women Online (CPWO), an opportunity to share their views on how the government should tackle VAWG. This violence is an increasingly growing problem, further facilitated by online platforms. The online environment makes it easier for perpetrators of VAWG to harass, stalk and abuse victims, as it allows for a global reach, online anonymity, and provides an outlet of misogynistic views. However, online violence against women and girls (OVAWG) is often overlooked in strategies and responses addressing VAWG. 

Dr Ksenia Bakina, Iona Black, Dr Keely Duddin and Professor Olga Jurasz, from the CPWO, responded to the PAC consultation with the key aspect focusing on OVAWG. The Centre’s response highlighted the prevalence of online violence against women and girls, the challenges within policing to tackle OVAWG, and the urgency needed to effectively address online harms experienced against women and girls. CPWO’s response also provided a list of actionable recommendations for the government. 

Prevalence of OVAWG

The Four Nation Study, conducted by Professor Olga Jurasz examined the scale, impact and societal attitudes towards online violence against women and girls (OVAWG) across the UK. This study found that in the United Kingdom, across the four nations, one in 10 women (15%) have experienced online violence, while 3 in 10 women (30%) have witnessed online violence. The study also found that most incidents of online violence that women experienced in the 12 months preceding the survey were text-based (82%) while approximately a third were image-based (33%). Women are most likely to experience online violence on Facebook (40%), Instagram (28%) and X/Twitter (33%). Being subjected to OVAWG has a serious impact on individuals. The main impacts identified in the Four Nations Study were an effect on mental health and wellbeing, and an impact on being able to express views online. The majority of participants reported to being most likely to seek support from friends.

Despite the prevalence of OVAWG, there are still significant gaps in understanding of the full scope of online violence. Current approaches tend to fall short of addressing the variety of online harms, with a predominant focus on image-based abuses such as ‘revenge porn’ or ‘deepfakes. This narrow lens is prone to overlooking other forms of harms such as doxxing, online harassment and cyberstalking, all of which are equally harmful and pervasive. These gaps in understanding and the lack of coherent framework further hinders the development of comprehensive strategies and preventions while amplifying the challenges faced by victims of OVAWG. 

Challenges in policing

Across the policing landscape, including frontline officers, there seems to be limited understanding of OVAWG and the severity of its impact. The absence of a concrete strategy or framework for officers to follow, in combination with a noticeable focus on offline harms, highlights a critical gap in addressing OVAWG. Not only is a lack of knowledge a challenge, but also the lack of resources to investigate online abuse. Officers are not trained in appropriate and effective measures on how to support victims of OVAWG or investigate the offences, leaving victims without suitable protection and/or justice. This should be mandatory across all forces to ensure online violence is reduced. It has also been identified that there is no established mechanism for systematic reporting and data sharing between online platforms and law enforcement. This makes it difficult for the police to assess how damming OVAWG is, subsequently affecting how it is dealt with. 

The Four Nations Study, conducted by Professor Olga Jurasz, found reluctance among victims due to a lack of confidence in the police responses. This furthers the police’s struggle to help tackle OVAWG. The Victims’ Commissioner found that only 13% of victims of online abuse were satisfied with the police response, while 45% were advised to remove themselves from online spaces rather than being offered meaningful intervention. The advice to remove oneself from online spaces highlights the lack of understanding within policing, and in itself is damaging to victims. 

These challenges are only further emphasised by platforms and social media companies not taking a more active role in directing victims to appropriate law enforcement channels and specialist support services or even removing harmful content online. 

Recommendations

A number of recommendations were outlined in the consultation, the following is not exhaustive. Firstly, any VAWG strategies produced by the government critically needs to include provisions to target OVAWG. Funding for large-scale research should be considered for organisations to obtain the relevant information on prevalence, prevention and the impacts of OVAWG. This funding and research would additionally allow for public awareness, with the aim of encouraging a shift in behaviour online, to be improved, alongside greater survivor support within policing and stronger accountability measures for digital platforms. 

OVAWG should be explicitly recognised within domestic abuse, stalking, and coercive control risk assessments as well as within legislation. This recommendation would encourage enforcement while establishing a clear and cohesive definition of online harms, and also providing stronger protection for victims of OVAWG. Any future guidance developed by the government addressing OVAWG needs to not solely focusing on image abuse or sexual harms. Whilst these are significant issues, they do not capture the full extent of OVAWG, and many victims will suffer differing offences. It is necessary to invest in governmental funding of programmes which co-design policy solutions from cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary perspective. 

To ensure that policing can effectively respond to OVAWG, a structured, intelligence-led, and capability-focused approach must be adopted—one that is rooted in the lived experiences of victims and survivors.  Any improvements to the policing response must be informed by survivor voices, centring their needs, experiences, and the barriers they face in seeking justice. Reporting mechanisms and intelligence-sharing between police, online platforms, and support services must be strengthened. A formal process for reporting tech-facilitated abuse incidents from online platforms to law enforcement should be established. 

We believe these measures will further protect women and girls online.  

Here you can find more information on the full consultation to the Public Affairs Committee.