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<p>The Online Safety Bill includes stringent provisions to tackle online violence
against women and girls, including domestic abuse.</p><p>All in-scope services will
need to proactively tackle priority illegal content. This includes a number of offences
that disproportionately target women and girls, such as offences relating to sexual
images, such as revenge and extreme pornography, harassment and cyberstalking. The
Government has also announced its intention to add controlling or coercive behaviour
as a priority offence during passage through the Lords.</p><p>All services will need
to ensure that they have effective systems and processes in place to quickly take
down other illegal content directed at women and girls once it has been reported or
they become aware of its presence.</p><p>The Government has also announced its intention
to use the Bill to criminalise the sharing of people's intimate images without their
consent. This, in combination with the measures already in the Bill to make cyberflashing
a criminal offence, will significantly strengthen protections for women.</p><p>The
strongest protections in the Bill will be for children, ensuring that they are protected
from content that is harmful to them. Additionally, major platforms will have a duty
to ensure that all adult users, including women, will be able to exercise greater
control over the content and other users they engage with. Women and girls will also
benefit from better mechanisms to report abuse online.</p><p>We also announced our
intention to name the Victims’ Commissioner and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner as
Statutory Consultees for the codes of practice. These bodies will be consulted by
Ofcom ahead of drafting and amending the codes of practice, ensuring the voices of
those affected by these issues are reflected in the way this legislation works in
practice.</p>
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