A Safer Life Online for Women and Girls: Call for Evidence

Published: 9 September 2026

About this response form

Through this Call for Evidence, we are seeking evidence in the form of research, data, and insights, for the period from November 2025 to date, on the following:   

> evidence of changes in the prevalence, incidence, nature or severity of the online gender-based harms covered in the Guidance,    

> evidence of how women and girls' experiences of these online gender-based harms have changed, and   

> evidence of actions taken by services, including implementation of the good practice steps or alternative approaches, and the impact these actions have had on users' experiences.  
  
This is a public consultation. Please respond by 5pm Wednesday 4 November.  

We will publish all non-confidential responses on our website. Where you have indicated that your response includes confidential material including personal details, we will contact you if we intend to publish this. You may indicate whether your responses are confidential by ticking the box "tick this box if you wish to submit confidential information relevant to this question". A second text box will appear which you can then input your response to. Please note if you submit a confidential response, we may be in contact in the future to ascertain whether your response remains confidential, and why. As such, please carefully consider the nature of your response.  

To understand how Ofcom may use your data, please refer to our General Privacy Statement.   

Please answer the questions in the form. If you choose not to answer a question, please leave the box blank. If you would like to upload additional evidence, there will be a prompt at the end to do so.  

If you would like to include any other supporting information, please complete the online form first and email anything else to womenandgirlscfe@ofcom.org.uk, as a link or attachment, together with your contact details so that we can contact you about your response. 

Your details

Are you responding to the consultation on behalf of an organisation or as a private individual? Please indicate if you would like any part or your identity to remain confidential

Your name and contact details will not be published, but are required to allow us to contact you about your response. 

Call for Evidence

Evidence we are seeking

We are seeking evidence from interested stakeholders on the questions set out in this document. We are particularly interested in hearing from civil society, researchers, and academia, although we welcome responses from any interested parties. We are also engaging directly with a range of service providers to understand how they have implemented the Guidance. 

We are particularly interested in evidence or insights that have been collected since November 2025 that can help us understand: 

a) how actions taken by service providers, including implementation of the Guidance, may have affected women and girls' online experiences, and  

b) how the online gender-based harms covered by the Guidance may have changed. 

Respondents are not required to respond to every question or bullet point. We welcome evidence that addresses any of the areas covered by this Call for Evidence. 

Evidence could include, for example, the findings of relevant investigations, transparency reports or research papers. If you have gathered quantitative data, please provide this in your response. Please include a working hyperlink to any evidence provided (if appropriate). 

As a reminder, the online gender-based harms covered by the Guidance are: 

  • Misogynistic abuse and sexual violence 
  • Pile-ons and coordinated harassment 
  • Stalking and coercive control 
  • Image-based sexual abuse

What action has been taken by service providers since the publication of the Guidance in November 2025 to address online gender-based harms?  

Where possible, please refer to the good practice steps from the Guidance in your response. We are particularly interested in evidence relating to:

  • implementation of the good practice steps set out in the Guidance 
  • other alternative steps adopted by services, and
  • the effectiveness of any action, including:
    • evidence that interventions have reduces harm or improved user experiences, and
    • evidence that interventions have had limited impact.

What evidence is available on women and girls’ experiences of the online gender-based harms identified in the Guidance since its publication in November 2025?

We are particularly interested in evidence relating to:  

  • changes (positive and negative) in women and girls’ experiences of these harms and their impacts, 
  • changes in how women and girls engage with online services, 
  • changes in the ways other users engage with online services that may increase or reduce women and girls’ experiences of online gender-based harms 
  • differences in experiences across services or types of services, and 
  • whether any changes appear to be associated with actions taken by service providers. 

What new evidence is available on the online gender-based harms identified in the Guidance since its publication in November 2025? 

We are particularly interested in evidence relating to:  

  • the prevalence, incidence, nature, or severity of the harms covered in the Guidance, including how these may have changed (if at all) since the publication of the Guidance, and  
  • the services or types of services where these harms occur. 

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