Stronger voices: Ofcom's role in protecting women and girls online

Thelwall, Stephanie ORCID: 0009-0008-6268-3448 (2025) Stronger voices: Ofcom's role in protecting women and girls online. . Department of Media and Communications, The London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

Text (policy brief ofcom women and girls_final) - Published Version Download (393kB)

Abstract

Key messages: • Women and girls face disproportionately high risk of online harm, such as misogyny, harassment, image-based abuse, and tech-enabled domestic abuse—risks that are compounded by intersecting factors like race and disability. • The UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) mandates Ofcom to address these harms, but their proposed guidance takes a cautious and non-binding approach, relying heavily on repurposed measures from child and illegal content protections rather than setting specific standards for women’s safety. • Ofcom proposes vague reporting and assessment measures, without providing any useful guidance on what harms to measure. • Ofcom’s failures to set clear standards will undermine platforms attempts to develop consistent approaches to safety by design, undermining accountability and limiting platforms' ability to act meaningfully on the guidance.

Item Type:	Monograph (Report)
Divisions:	Media and Communications
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Date Deposited:	23 May 2025 07:06
Last Modified:	11 Sep 2025 03:31
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/128162

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