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

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.