On 9 September 2026, Ofcom published a Call for Evidence seeking information on whether women and girls are experiencing a safer online environment following publication of its A Safer Life Online for Women and Girls guidance in November 2025. The exercise forms part of Ofcom’s ongoing oversight of the Online Safety Act 2023 and will inform a report due to be published during the second quarter of 2027 assessing progress across the sector.
Patrick Williams, Senior Associate in Keoghs Abuse Team, examines the consultation and its wider implications for organisations responsible for safeguarding individuals in digital environments.
As the UK’s online safety regulator, Ofcom is responsible for overseeing compliance with the Online Safety Act 2023. The legislation imposes duties on regulated services to tackle illegal content, protect children from harmful material, and mitigate online harms that disproportionately affect women and girls.
In November 2025, Ofcom published A Safer Life Online for Women and Girls, guidance developed following engagement with survivors, victim support organisations, civil society groups, and online safety experts. The guidance sets out a range of practical measures intended to reduce online gender-based harms.
Ofcom’s latest Call for Evidence seeks information on:
Responses are invited until 4 November 2026, with Ofcom’s findings expected in the second quarter of 2027.
Ofcom identifies four principal categories of online gender-based harm that continue to disproportionately affect women and girls and remain areas of regulatory focus:
This includes abusive, hateful, threatening or violent content that promotes misogyny or normalises sexual violence. Ofcom has expressed particular concern regarding the role of recommendation systems and algorithmic amplification in exposing users, particularly young men and boys, to such content.
These incidents involve the coordinated targeting of women or girls through abusive messages, threats, harassment campaigns or other hostile online behaviour. Public figures, journalists, politicians and campaigners are among the groups most frequently affected.
Digital technologies may be used to facilitate stalking, surveillance, coercive control and other forms of controlling behaviour within intimate, familial or personal relationships.
This category includes the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, cyberflashing and the circulation of self-generated indecent imagery involving children.
A central theme of Ofcom’s guidance is the adoption of a “safety by design” approach. Rather than relying solely upon reactive moderation after harm has occurred, providers are encouraged to embed safeguards within platform design, governance arrangements and operational processes from the outset.
The guidance identifies nine recommended actions, grouped into three overarching themes:
- Ensuring governance and accountability frameworks adequately address gender-based harms;
- conducting risk assessments that specifically consider risks affecting women and girls; and
- increasing transparency regarding safety performance and outcomes.
- Undertaking product testing and abusability assessments;
- implementing safer default settings; and
- reducing the circulation and amplification of harmful content.
- Giving users greater control over their online experience;
- improving reporting and escalation mechanisms; and
- responding effectively and proportionately when harm occurs.
Although directed primarily at regulated online services, these principles increasingly represent best practice standards for digital safeguarding and risk management more generally.
The Call for Evidence should be viewed within the context of a wider programme of regulatory activity aimed at strengthening protections for women and girls online. Ofcom highlights several significant regulatory developments demonstrating continued focus on protecting women and girls online. These include:
Following the designation of cyberflashing as a priority offence under the Online Safety Act 2023, Ofcom has updated its regulatory framework to require regulated services to assess and mitigate cyberflashing risks.
Ofcom has also accelerated initiatives aimed at reducing the circulation of non-consensual intimate imagery, including encouraging the adoption of hash-matching technologies capable of identifying and preventing the re-uploading of known images.
Of particular significance is the introduction of duties requiring service providers to remove non-consensual intimate images within 48 hours. Ofcom has indicated that further consultation on implementation of these requirements will take place before the end of 2026.
Collectively, these developments demonstrate an ongoing regulatory trend towards faster intervention, more proactive risk management, and higher evidential expectations for regulated entities.
While the guidance is directed principally at online platforms, many organisations operate digital communities, communication channels and online environments in which similar risks may arise.
Educational establishments, charities, sports organisations, religious institutions, membership bodies and employers should consider the following:
Ofcom’s Call for Evidence represents the next stage in the implementation of the Online Safety Act 2023. More importantly, it signals the regulator’s intention to assess whether online services have moved beyond policy commitments and translated those commitments into demonstrable improvements in user safety.
Organisations should use the period before publication of Ofcom’s findings in 2027 to review governance arrangements, reassess online safeguarding risks and ensure that policies, reporting mechanisms, technological controls and incident management frameworks remain capable of addressing emerging forms of online gender-based abuse.
Stakeholders wishing to contribute to the review have until 4 November 2026 to submit evidence, with Ofcom’s report expected during the second quarter of 2027.
Designed to elevate the policyholder experience and empower handlers, ClaimPilot transforms the claims journey with state-of-the-art AI, streamlined processes and reduced operational bottlenecks – all in one powerful platform.
